The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Sep 2022

Aikon provides Web3 onboarding solutions built on the Open Rights Exchange (ORE) Network and powered by the ORE Token, with a focus on secure multi-chain authentication and wallet creation through its ORE ID product. Led by CEO Marc Blinder, ORE ID supports multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, Algorand, Telos and WAX and is being extended to support Avalanche. ORE ID is integrated into businesses and dApps such as AllianceBlock, RFox, NFT Battle Miners and EarnFi and is actively used in 12 countries. The company is targeting 400,000 ORE ID users by the end of 2022. Aikon intends to use its recent funding to grow its team of blockchain experts to support rising demand, and the company added board members Mark Yusko and W. Scott Stornetta in conjunction with the round.

Led · Series A · Jul 2022

Ucrop.it operates a blockchain-enabled platform that lets farmers register farm activities, log agreements with agro-processors and buyers, and generate verifiable "Crop Stories" documenting sustainable practices. The platform tracks metrics including energy use, fertilizer use, crop residue management and carbon intensity, and is offered free for farmers. Ucrop.it charges fees to corporate buyers for access to the verified data, with pricing set regionally (U.S. users pay more than LatAm counterparts). The company has onboarded 20 corporates and more than 700 growers and says it has mapped one million hectares of sustainable crops in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay this season. Ucrop.it is working on verification schemes to help growers access finance at a lower cost of capital and plans to use recent funding for regional expansion, new value-chain alliances, and platform upgrades. The startup was founded in 2018 by Diego Hoter, Marcos Botta and Matías O’Keefe and is expanding toward Brazil and the U.S. Ucrop.it provides an app-based platform that records crop-cycle information on a blockchain and uses confidential cryptographic storage to protect producers’ data. The platform lets growers choose which downstream companies can view their crop logs so buyers can vet sustainability practices in exchange for better payments. It operates as a freemium service for farmers while downstream corporate customers — including processors, seed and biotech firms, inputs dealers, service providers, and financial institutions — pay for access. The team has run numerous pilots in Argentina validating the concept and aligning incentives between farmers and buyers. Ucrop.it is building a sustainable soybean ecosystem that is nearing 200,000 hectares of coverage and plans to add carbon sequestration metrics to enhance its sustainability footprint. The company intends to use its recent funding to expand into soybean, cotton, corn, and wheat and to grow beyond Argentina into Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, and the US.