Hello world, and welcome to Dove Dispatch #21!
Today, we are digging into the emergence of crypto funds mafias.
Dove Metrics is sponsored by The Index Coop - a community-led initiative focused on making crypto investing simple, accessible, and safe. They create and maintain the world’s best crypto index products: DeFi Pulse Index ($DPI), ETH2x-Flexible Leverage Index (ETH2x-FLI), BTC2x-Flexible Leverage Index (BTC2x-FLI), Metaverse Index ($MVI), and Bankless BED Index ($BED).
We previously published an article on the startups coming out of crypto mafias, but have noticed so much investing activity emerging from the same hubs that we decided to make that the focus of this issue. Recently, Kavita Gupta, a former ConsenSys employee, launched Delta Blockchain Fund, a new $50M VC firm. Daniel Novy, another ex-ConsenSys employee will support Gupta as a venture partner.
Out of the 42 crypto funds launched by former employees of top crypto companies, 28 have come out of executives at CeFi companies.
Again, Coinbase is leading the charge with 7 funds. Huobi, OKEX, and Binance are following with respectively 5 and 4 funds.
ConsenSys also seems to be very successful in inspiring people to launch their fund, with Acrylic and Delta Blockchain Fund recently created. Surprisingly, almost no smart contract platforms companies alumni built a VC firm.
Very few Web3 companies have started to spin out fund manager talent.
0x Labs is emerging as the first DeFi crypto funds mafia, even though none of these funds have been launched by former employees. But with some DeFi talent leaving to get focused on investing, it could constitute the next big pool of VC funds founders.
Last week 30 projects announced fundraising rounds:
Demole ($650k) | A vast monster world on Blockchains. Players become heroes to defeat Bosses and receive monster eggs, monster exp, and tokens — with participation from DAO Maker, LD Capital, and Metrix Capital.
Coinshift ($2.5M) | Building the most sophisticated crypto treasury management platform for companies & DAOs — with participation from Harsh Rajat, Aniket Jindal, Siddharth Jain, Siddhanth Jayaram, Pranav Sharma, Charlie Songhurst, Arjun Kalsy, Ahmed Al-Balaghi, Bored Elon, Scott Moore, Larry Sukernik, Ajit Tripathi, Sandeep Nailwal, Kenneth Ng, Fernando Martinelli, Sequoia Capital, Ryan Hoover, Ethereal Ventures, LongHash Ventures, FinTech Collective, ConsenSys Mesh, DeFi Alliance, Volt Capital, Gnosis, Protocol Labs, and BR Capital.
Gelato ($11M) | Enables everyone to leverage the power of a decentralized network of bots to fully automate the movement of their money between different protocols on Ethereum — with participation from Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, Nascent, IDEO Colab Ventures, and Stani Kulechov.
Kokoa Finance ($2.3M) | The entry point to Klaytn DeFi, offering a combined stablecoin and yield generation protocol to power the next wave of DeFi adoption — with participation from Hashed, a41 Ventures, and SkyVision Capital.
Layer3 ($2.5M) | Listing tasks and bounties from DAOs to enable contributors to earn crypto — with participation from ParaFi Capital, Electric Capital, Lattice Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Kain Warwick, Jai Bhavnani, Jordan Momtazi, Kinjal Shah, Nick Emmons, Tony Sheng, and Felix Feng.
Forta ($23M) | An enterprise-grade runtime security platform whose goal is to detect threats and other system critical issues as quickly as possible — with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Blockchain Capital, BlueYard Capital, Placeholder, SCB 10X, and Digital Currency Group.
Reasoned Art ($360k) | The Italian gallery dedicated to CryptoArt. it selects the best digital artists worldwide, curates physical and virtual exhibitions, and certifies the authenticity of works allowing their sale through NFT — with participation from LVenture Group, and Rosario Bifulco.
Zero Hash ($35M) | Empowering innovators by delivering access to the financial system 2.0. Zero Hash enables developers and businesses to focus on building experiences and products — with participation from Point72 Ventures, Nyca Partners, DriveWealth, Ethan Bloch, Immad Akhund, Jason Gardner, and Kalpesh Kapadia.
CitaDAO ($1M) | A Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platform for real estate to be tokenized on-chain, built on the Ethereum ecosystem — with participation from Sora Ventures, SNZ Holding, Origin Capital, Turn Capital, Siong Ong, DegenJoe, Leo Cheng, and Loi Luu.
XDefi Wallet ($6M) | A chain agnostic cryptocurrency wallet — with participation from Mechanism Capital, DeFiance Capital, SinoGlobal Capital, Morningstar Ventures, Animoca Brands, CoinGecko Ventures, Alameda Research, 3LAU, Meltem Demirors, DCInvestor, gmoneyNFT, and Scoopy Trooples.
Float Protocol ($1.2M) | A floating, low-volatility currency for Web3 — with participation from 0xMaki, Ana Andrianova, Batuhan Dasgin, Eden Block, Re7 Capital, Freddie Farmer, Ivailo Jordanov, Katya, The LAO, Lyuben Belov, MetaCartel Ventures, Santiago R. Santos, Sergei Chan, Stani Kulechov, and Sunil Srivatsa.
DoinGud ($5M) | An NFT ecosystem empowering creators, collectors, curators, and communities to do good — with participation from Alameda Research, IOSG Ventures, Kenetic, Genblock Capital, Ellipti, Divergence Ventures, GBV Capital, LD Capital, Digital Finance Group, Hard Yaka, DAOSquare, Supernova Fund, FBG Capital, MetaCartel Ventures China, D64 Ventures, Altvest, DuckDAO, Consensus Fintech Group, Sandeep Nailwal, and others.
Talisman ($2.35M) | A community-owned wallet built for Polkadot, Kusama the Parachains — with participation from Hypersphere Ventures, Koji Capital, Advanced Blockchain AG, Digital Finance Group, Jsquare, PAKA, D1 Ventures, Paperclip Fund, Derek Yoo, Ruitao Su, Leigh Travers, 0xbrainjar, Bruno Skvorc, hutch, and Zee Prime Capital.
fxdx exchange ($570k) | Derivatives DEX with lightning-fast transaction speed and minimal transactions costs with institutional-grade centralized UI/UX experience - built on Algorand — with participation from Valhalla Capital, Router Protocol, Michael Shelter, DFYN Network, Dean Thomas, 0x Ventures, and Chandan Choudhury.
Angle Labs ($5M) | The first over-collateralized, decentralized, and capital-efficient stablecoin protocol — with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Divergence Ventures, Wintermute, Fabric Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Alven, Julien Bouteloup, and Frédéric Montagnon.
Roll ($10M) | Blockchain infrastructure for social money — with participation from IOSG Ventures, Animoca Brands, Alchemy, Huobi Capital, Weekend Fund, Mischief Fund, Audacity.Fund, LongHash Ventures, Ruttenberg Gordon, Red Beard Ventures, Blue 9 Capital, Wei Zhou, Jeff Zirlin, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Hyung Kim, Max Bernstein, James Beshara, and Greg Isenberg.
Eternal ($4.5M) | Collect moments from stream and gaming history while supporting your favorite streamers — with participation from Coinbase Ventures, NFX, Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, Dapper Labs, Arrington XRP Capital, Animoca Brands, Cooper Turley, Devin Finzer, Scalar Capital, Tony Sheng, Lattice Capital, Kevin Lin, Alexandra Botez, Robert Leshner, Jeff Zirlin, Matt Finick, James Park, Ray Chan, Village Global, Broadhaven Capital Partners, and A.capital.
Nahmii ($8M) | Helping Ethereum scale and companies build real-life Blockchain-based solutions — with participation from Aligned Capital, DARMA Capital, DeltaBCFund, CMT Digital, and Fourth Revolution Capital.
Unlock ($4M) | An access control protocol built on blockchain that let creators monetize their content without relying on a middleman — with participation from MetaCartel Ventures, GMG Ventures, Cygni Capital, Cherry Ventures, and Betaworks.
Merkle Science ($5.8M) | Next generation crypto threat detection, risk management, and compliance for businesses, banks, and government agencies — with participation from Token Bay Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, LuneX Ventures, Kraken, Fenbushi Capital, Kenetic, and Darrow Holdings.
Avantgarde Finance ($5.5M) | Aims to democratize and disintermediate investment fund administration — with participation from Acrew Capital, Placeholder, Jump Capital, Blockchange Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and CoinShares.
Yellow Card ($15M) | The easiest way to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether instantly at the best rates with zero fees — with participation from Valar Ventures, Third Prime, Castle Island Ventures, Square, Cash App, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, and Blockchain.com.
Swash ($4M) | An ecosystem of tools and services that enable people, businesses, and developers to unlock the latent value of data by pooling, securely sharing and monetizing its value — with participation from KuCoin Labs, Outlier Ventures, and Streamr.
Solcial ($2.9M) | The first uncensorable, permissionless, and truly open social network — with participation from Alameda Research, Solana Foundation, Rarestone Capital, GBV Capital, Shift Capital, and NOIA Capital.
Clearpool ($3M) | Uncollateralized borrowing for crypto institutions — with participation from Arrington XRP Capital, GBV Capital, Hashkey Capital, Sequoia Capital, Hex Trust, SinoGlobal Capital, Wintermute, AscendEX, BCW Group, FBG Capital, Folkvang, Huobi Capital, and Kenetic.
IPaidThat ($7M) | Automatically imports the invoices you receive, and compares them with your bank transactions — with participation from Bpifrance, Truffle Capital, and Adelie.
Coinrule ($2.2M) | Empowers traders to compete with professional algorithmic traders and hedge funds. No coding required — with participation from Y Combinator, Zilliqa Capital, Urban Innovation Fund, Kube VC, Matteo Franceschetti, NV Ventures, NZVC, Robin Bade, Startup Leadership Program, and Stelios Gerogiannakis.
Ziglu ($1.6M) | Provides a digital platform that enables customers to exchange fiat currency for cryptocurrency
Blofin ($12M) | A crypto-financial services company — with participation from KuCoin Labs, Matrix Partners, Fenbushi Capital, and Lingfeng Capital.
HeroVerse | The first match-3 puzzle and RPG strategy play-and-earn game — with participation from AU21 Capital, DAO Maker, X21 Digital, and IceTea Labs.
We have also added the following investors: Brotherhood, Mischief Fund, Re7 Capital, Altvest, and many angels.
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See you on Thursday for Thursday Thoughts #16,
The Dove Team