Dove Dispatch #38 (Reuben Bramanathan - IDEO CoLab Ventures)
Hands-on investing, decentralizing VC, and much more
GM and welcome to Dove Dispatch #38!
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Reuben Bramanathan joined IDEO CoLab Ventures in January 2021, after more than 3 years at Coinbase. They announced a first $21M fund back in October 2020, and recently bet on DOOMSDAYX, JPG, and Rumble Kong League.
Reuben sat down with us and shared his thoughts on investing.
You guys are designers and builders first, investors second - what kind of value add do you bring to the table other crypto native funds don’t?
IDEO CoLab was spun out of IDEO in 2015, as an applied research lab to better understand blockchain and cryptocurrency. We built hundreds of prototypes and ran experiments together with a number of our fellows, community members, and sponsors. We also leveraged IDEO’s decades of pioneering design thinking to help crypto projects better understand their users.
From those foundations, we launched our first fund in 2018 and our second fund in 2021, focused on supporting a diverse range of builders in crypto, at the earliest stages. We lean in and help with product, brand, UI/UX design, community building, token design & economics, legal and regulatory issues, partnerships, marketing & PR.
We still think of ourselves as builders. When we support a project, we invest our time and energy along with our capital, and we believe that both are equally important.
It is now known that IDEO CoLab Ventures gives carry to the whole team instead of GPs only - how beneficial such a model has been for the performance of the fund?
We believe that community ownership is the superpower of Web3, and we want to be part of this change, just like the projects we support. We’ve been able to build a world-class team by offering all contributors carry in our fund, which includes all employees as well as venture partners and community members.
Over the last year, you built close relationships with the Terra ecosystem by incubating projects such as Astroport and organizing Terra-focused hackathons - despite a growing activity, relatively small amounts of capital have flowed into the ecosystem so far. How do you see the Terra funding landscape evolve over the next few months?
We’re very excited and optimistic about the quality of new projects, builders, and community entering the Terra ecosystem and we believe that capital will naturally follow. We’re long-term believers in the broader Cosmos/Tendermint ecosystem as well.
🙌 Thanks to our sponsors at BarnBridge
You have been a long-time partner of Kernel - to what extent participating in such a program can be crucial for a project looking to raise funds?
KERNEL is one of the most important emerging institutions in web3. It is becoming a crucial resource for anyone new to web3, and the value of the content and community connections are second to none. We’d highly recommend KERNEL for anyone interested in exploring web3.
You launched the IDEO Founder Collective in April with the aim of “progressively decentralizing” and “exiting to community” - as you want to build a different kind of VC firm at IDEO, what are the main next steps towards decentralization?
We’re constantly iterating and experimenting with how we can become a more web3 native organization, in every aspect. We’re guided by the principles of community ownership, inclusivity, and opportunity for all participants. For example, we incubated Syndicate - web3 native investing and partnered with WE3 collective, a crypto native design collective, to help redefine investing and participation in the pace. Keep an eye out for some more news on this front soon :)
Many thanks to Reuben for sharing such insightful insights.
Last week 35 projects announced fundraising rounds:
SO-COL ($1.75M) | The first Web3 Social platform powered by StarkWare — with participation from DeFiance Capital, Animoca Brands, Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, Global Founders Capital, Double Peak, Anti Fund, Genblock Capital, and Kronos Research.
Rift Finance ($18M) | Supercharging DAO growth — with participation from Pantera Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Hashed, DeFiance Capital, Spartan Group, Jump Capital, Vessel Capital, Do Kwon, Sandeep Nailwal, Stani Kulechov, Tascha Punyaneramitdee, Morningstar Ventures, and Joseph Naggar.
BlockSurvey ($500k) | End-to-end encrypted forms & surveys — with participation from Stacks Accelerator, Gossamer Capital, DeSpread, GBV Capital, a41 Ventures, Zanavu Ventures, Badhouse Ventures, Trevor Owens, and Jun Gong.
Aleo ($200M) | A modular and compliant toolkit for building private applications — with participation from SamsungNext, Kora Management, SoftBank, Tiger Global Management, Sea Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Slow Ventures.
Polygon ($450M) | A combination of blockchain scaling, developer platform and tools, and a rabid focus on user experience — with participation from Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Interactive, Tiger Global Management, Republic, Alan Howard, Kevin O'Leary, Makers Fund, Scopely, Sangha Capital, Sino Global Capital, CoinFund, Alameda Research, Digital Currency Group, Bitfinex, Celsius Network, Seven Seven Six, Transcend Fund, WorkPlay Ventures, Third Point Ventures, Blue Pool Capital, Accel, Steadview Capital, Finality Capital Partners, Unacademy, Elevation Capital, Sound Ventures, Animoca Brands, GHAF Capital Partners, Dune Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Voodoo, Dragonfly Capital, Spartan Group, Variant, and Standard Crypto.
StreetBeat ($10M) | A free investment and trading app for Stocks and Crypto — with participation from TTV Capital, Seraph Group, and AAF Management.
Alchemy ($200M) | Blockchain developer platform - Blockchain AWS — with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, DFJ, Pantera Capital, and Addition.
Pillow ($3M) | Earn up to 18% interest on your crypto with a single tap — with participation from Elevation Capital, Scott Lewis, Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, Prabhakar Reddy, Aniket Jindal, Ramakant Sharma, Farid Ahsan, Kush Taneja, Sambhav Jain, and Mukund Jha.
Colexion ($5M) | The most elite & curated digital marketplace for premium NFTs — with participation from Polygon, Hyperedge Capital, C² Ventures, ZBS Capital, ICO Pantera, Titan Ventures, Good Games Labs, Alan Howard, OIG Investment Group, Gains Associates, Maven Capital, GSR, Moonrock Capital, and Jump Capital.
Spin ($3.75M) | Multichain decentralized derivatives trading platform — with participation from Lemniscap, GSR, Spartan Group, Angel DAO, ZMT Capital, and LongHash Ventures.
Qredo ($80M) | Blockchain interoperability, lightning-fast settlement and secure decentralized custody — with participation from 10T Fund, Coinbase Ventures, Avalanche Foundation, Terra, Kingsway Capital, AVA Labs, GoldenTree Asset Management, HOF Capital, tokentus investment AG, SVK Crypto, GMF Capital, Rovida Kruptos Assets, Vectr Ventures, Kestrel 0x1, Kenetic, Raptor Group, Alumni Ventures Group, and Liberty City Ventures.
Primex Finance ($5.7M) | Decentralized brokerage liquidity protocol for cross-dex leverage trading — with participation from Stratos Technologies, CoinFund, Hypersphere Ventures, GoldenTree Asset Management, Wintermute, GSR, LedgerPrime, NxGen, Mask Network, Pragma, Morningstar Ventures, HG Ventures, Formless Capital, Peech Capital, ZBS Capital, Mapleblock Capital, Magnus Capital, and Parachain Ventures.
Pool ($3.7M) | Supporting organizations who enable ordinary people to monetize and share their data — with participation from Outlier Ventures, LedgerPrime, Decasonic, Moonrock Capital, and DFG.
RareCircle ($7.5M) | The leading NFT membership platform — with participation from Tiger Global Management, White Star Capital, Hashed, Alpaca VC, Crew Capital, Global Founders Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, Detroit Venture Partners, Packy McCormick, Joe McCann, Austin Rief, Mike Dudas, Greg Isenberg, and Julien Smith.
Fiat Republic ($3.5M) | Banking API unlocking mainstream fiat services for crypto platforms — with participation from Seedcamp, Speedinvest, and Credo Ventures.
Pledge Finance | The World's Leading Marketplace for Financial NFTs — with participation from AKA Angel.
Tribal Credit ($60M) | A B2B payments and financing platform for emerging markets — with participation from SoftBank, Coinbase Ventures, QED Investors, Rising Tide, Circle, AGE Crypto, Third Prime, Acuity Ventures, BECO Capital, and Canas Capital.
Trust Machines ($150M) | Building the largest ecosystem of Bitcoin applications — with participation from Breyer Capital, Digital Currency Group, GoldenTree Asset Management, Union Square Ventures, and Hivemind Capital Partners.
Passiv | Wealth automation for self-directed investors — with participation from Y Combinator
Descrypto ($75k) | A cryptocurrency platform and holding company that focuses on acquiring and developing high-quality digital economy assets
Aurox ($2.9M) | A cryptocurrency trading terminal designed to help traders accelerate their profits
Galaxy Fight Club ($7M) | The First Cross-IP PVP game for the NFT Universe — with participation from Animoca Brands, Sequoia Capital, The Chernin Group, SkyVision Capital, YGG SEA, Spartan Group, Sfermion, Astronaut Capital, Bondly, Double Peak, Formless Capital, Moon Edge, PANONY, Perion, Rarestone Capital, 18Ventures, Avocado Guild, Gerstenbrot Capital, Huobi Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, KuCoin Labs, MEXC Exchange, PKO Investments, Polkastarter, Zokyo, Kevin Lin, Kun Gao, and Matt Finick.
Kyoko ($3M) | A cross-chain GameFi NFT lending market for guilds and players — with participation from Animoca Brands, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Red Building Capital, Morningstar Ventures, Momentum 6, Axia8 Ventures, NGC Ventures, Blockchain Space, Peter Ing, and Kliff Capital.
Dune Analytics ($69.420M) | Ethereum-centric analytics platform — with participation from Coatue Management, Multicoin Capital, and Dragonfly Capital.
PUNKS Comic ($100M) | NFTs created by Pixel Vault — with participation from 01 Advisors, and Velvet Sea.
ICHI ($3.5M) | A white-label stablecoin solution for DeFi projects — with participation from Fundamental Labs, TRGC, Lattice, and Lightshift Capital.
InvArch ($1.75M) | An IP Ownership, Utility & Cross-Chain Authentication Protocol for Web3 — with participation from Waterdrip Capital, Alves Ventures, Huobi Capital, PAKA, Illusionist Group, Bigcoin Capital, Kernel Ventures, TsingTing Capital, 1PAR Research, Bitrise Capital, ZB Capital, Arkn Ventures, Gemhive Dao, Glock Ventures, DeltaHub Capital, Gate.io, Kretos Ventures, and TsingTech Ventures.
QWLA | A decentralized ETF with value and functionality
ACE | Bringing creators and fans together to grow wealth on a secure, blockchain-powered platform
Newton | Crypto trading for Canadians
CoinLedger ($6M) | Cryptocurrency tax software built to save you time and maximize your refund — with participation from FinTech Collective, Volt Capital, Mike Dudas, CMT Digital, Adam White, DRW, and Voyager Digital Ltd.
Nestcoin ($6.45M) | Democratizing access to economic opportunity for everyday people in frontier markets — with participation from Alameda Research, Distributed Global, Alter Global, Serena Ventures, A&T Capital, MSA Capital, 4DX Ventures, Raba Capital, Goat Capital, Old Fashion Research, CMT Digital, Electric Capital, Social Capital, CoinFund, gumi Cryptos, DeFi Alliance, Ventures Platform, Future Africa, Voltron Capital, Musha Ventures, Sunu Capital, Flying Doctors, Konvoy Ventures, Timon Capital, Sandeep Nailwal, Meltem Demirors, Edward Moncada, Dickson Nsofor, Nischal Shetty, Calvin Chu, Shola Akinlade, and others.
GalleonDAO ($1M) | Asset Management Methodologists Guild — with participation from 1kx, Angel DAO, Fire Eyes DAO, MetaPortal, SW DAO, Nothing Research, MEXC Exchange, Anthony Sassano, Sandeep Nailwal, and Jack Sun.
NFT3 ($7.5M) | The first unified virtual identity network for Web 3.0 — with participation from "Animoca Brands, LD Capital, Prometeus Labs, DFG, LVT Capital, Shima Capital, Digital Strategies, ZMT Capital, Tenzor Capital, Double Peak, CMS Holdings, Genblock Capital, Ankr, and Ellipti.
Ajuna ($2M) | First decentralized gaming platform in the Polkadot ecosystem, with an in-house game studio — with participation from Fundamental Labs, OKX, Signum Capital, Hillrise Capital, PreAngel Fund, Longling Capital, GFS Ventures, Double Peak, YouBi Capital, and Animoca Brands.
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