Alven Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm with over $500 million under management. Alven backs primarily ambitious French and French-related entrepreneurs in the digital technology space. Alven’s sectors of interest include notably AI, data management platforms, Saas, security solutions, as well as disruptive consumer models with a particular focus on marketplaces and web brands.

Alven

SV Angel is a San Francisco-based venture fund. Their experience spans helping companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Databricks, DoorDash, Faire, Flexport, GitHub, Notion, Pinterest, Snap, Square, and Stripe Scale. Over the last 30 years of investing, their core values of trust, loyalty, and integrity along with a founder-first approach have driven our strategy. They are a service organization, investing in founders who share these values. They support entrepreneurs in building lasting companies by assisting at key inflection points and leveraging networks to help them propel their businesses forward.

SV Angel

Kima Ventures is one of the world's most active early-stage investors, investing in 2 to 3 startups per week all over the world; providing founders with funding, network, and support for them to reach the next steps of their journey. The firm invests from seed to Series A, mostly as lead investor but also working alongside other investors; backing ambitious founders who work hard to build awesome things that more and more people use everyday. The company helps them to build a great team, to learn very quickly, to keep the right focus and execute towards growth. Kima takes pride of itself in working side-by-side with entrepreneurs. They claim to understand that fundraising is only one step in the company’s journey, that’s why they take quick decisions and make the fundraising process as smooth as possible so the founders can get back to the work of building their business. Kima considers itself not only an investor, but a network of founders and experts sharing a pay it forward mindset. Headquartered in Paris with an office in London, the company was founded and backed by Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad and supporter of entrepreneurs through such projects as 42, Station F and 101projets. Over the last 5 years Kima has invested in over 400 startups in 24 different countries.

Kima Ventures

3KVC is a New York-based venture fund focused on early-stage investments. The company intends to invest in the software and financial services industries.

Third Kind Venture Capital

BlueYard invests in founders with transforming ideas that decentralize markets and empower humanity. Typically $1-3m as an initial investment; active around the world.  Most active in crypto / web 3 (e.g. Protocol Labs, Filecoin, Open Zeppelin, Radicle), technologies that help us overcome our largest planetary challenges (e.g. Marvel Fusion, Meatable, Dance), frontier biology to help us live long and prosper (e.g. BitBio, Biofidelity) and vertical software un-bundling monopolies (e.g. Pitch, Wonder).

BlueYard Capital

Bermingham Capital mentors and invests in early-stage tech or deep-tech companies and also invests in renewable electricity.

Bermingham Capital

Illuminate Financial is a venture capital firm backing companies that solve problems in financial services. Building an enterprise software company and selling solutions into financial institutions is hard. We have deep domain expertise, the right industry network and are a trusted partner to our portfolio companies as we help guide them through the early stages of their journey.

Illuminate Financial

ConsenSys is an Ethereum software web3 company. ConsenSys enables developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web. ConsenSys' product suite, composed of Infura, Quorum, Truffle, Codefi, MetaMask, and Diligence, serves millions of users, supports billions of blockchain-based queries for its clients, and has handled billions of dollars in digital assets. Ethereum is a programmable blockchain in the world, business adoption, developer community, and DeFi activity. On this trusted, open-source foundation, ConsenSys is building the digital economy of tomorrow.

ConsenSys

XBTO is a cryptoﬁnance company that provides institutional-grade liquidity to major trading platforms. It continues to grow and shape the market today through its extensive trading experience and deep technical knowledge of blockchain. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

XBTO Group

LeadBlock Partners is a european venture capital fund investing in B2B blockchain/digital assets solutions.

LeadBlock Partners

GSR has nine years of deep crypto market expertise as a market maker, ecosystem partner and active, multi-stage investor. GSR sources and provides spot and non-linear liquidity in digital assets for token issuers, institutional investors, miners, and leading cryptocurrency exchanges. GSR employs over 300 people around the globe, and its trading technology is connected to 60 trading venues, including the world's leading DEXs.  We have a culture of approaching complex problems with tenacity and imagination. We build long-term relationships by offering exceptional service, expertise and trading capabilities tailored to the specific needs of our clients.

Kraken Ventures invests in businesses and projects at the nexus of both the fintech and blockchain/crypto revolutions. The company provides a combination of the two by being a completely autonomous fund backed by Kraken's resources and expertise. Kraken Ventures invests in financial infrastructure, Web3, digital economies, consumer crypto protocols, and enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Kraken Ventures

Sparkle Ventures fund investing equity and tokens to support prominent technologies in Web 3.0 and highly scalable businesses participating in the build-up of the Metaverse.

Sparkle Ventures

1kx is a crypto investment firm that specializes in ecosystem growth.

Founded in 2016, Crypto.com today serves over 10 million customers with the world’s fastest growing crypto app, along with the Crypto.com Visa Card — the world’s largest crypto card program — the Crypto.com Exchange and Crypto.com DeFi Wallet. Crypto.com NFT is the premier platform for collecting and trading NFTs, carefully curated from the worlds of art, design, entertainment and sports. Crypto.com is built on a solid foundation of security, privacy and compliance. With headquarters in Singapore and over 2,600 people in offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia, Crypto.com is accelerating the world’s transition to cryptocurrency.

Crypto.com

IOSG Ventures is a pioneering crypto fund founded in 2017 that invests in the future of Web3. As a thesis-driven firm, we assist founders in developing community-driven protocols that are primed to transform the crypto landscape. Our portfolio comprises a wide range of innovative and high-potential investments, including ZKRU (Scroll, StarkWare, Arbitrum, zkSync), Security Auditing(Runtime Verification, Hexens), MEV (Flashbots, Blocknative), DeFi/NFT-Fi (1inch, MetaMask), FOG (Big Time, Illuvium), and a number of industry leaders including Arweave, Cosmos, Celestia, EigenLayer, Scroll, zkSync, Nil Foundation, and Mina, etc. We are passionate about investing in crypto-native paradigms that have the potential to transform the future of the industry, whether you’re building infra, middleware, security, gaming, or social platforms.

IOSG Ventures

Founded in December 2015, LBank is a centralized digital asset trading platform for international users. It aims to provide professional asset management solutions. At present, LBank offers hundreds of digital currency pairs. LBank also claims to have one of the highest staking rewards on any exchange. LBank exchange has labs to research and invest in good projects.

LBank

KXVC is a dynamic $100 million fund committed to supporting innovation in the Web3 and Deeptech sectors on an international scale. As the venture arm of Kasikorn X (KX), a subsidiary under the prestigious Kasikorn Business Technology Group (KBTG), KXVC aims to nurture the massive adoption pathway of AI and Web3.0 technologies. Leveraging KX's local expertise, KXVC serves as a strategic partner, facilitating connections between international leaders and the thriving Southeast Asian market, which boasts a population of over 675 million.

KXVC

Wintermute Ventures is the investment arm of Wintermute, a global algorithmic trading firm, liquidity provider, and leading OTC desk in digital assets.  Drawing from Wintermute's expertise in pioneering DeFi trading and powering liquidity across the entire ecosystem, Wintermute Ventures is uniquely positioned to back early-stage Web3 projects with hands-on support. Focused on long-term growth, the company takes a flexible approach, investing from early ideation to later-stage expansion. Committed to developing strategic relationships and driving positive outcomes, Wintermute Ventures prioritizes decentralized ownership, ensuring its investments align with the company’s broader vision of a decentralized future. Since 2020, it has invested in over 100 projects.

Wintermute Ventures

Kiln

Disrupting the traditional financial system using blockchain

Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

Alluvial offers application programming interfaces (API) that enable enterprises and institutional clients to integrate staking into their digital asset exchanges and DeFi protocols. The company also develops “Liquid Collective,” a DeFi protocol that enables users to tokenize their staked positions on the Ethereum blockchain and use them as collateral for loans or to transfer ownership. These tokenized positions are represented by “LsETH,” which can be held by users to automatically restake their network rewards.Furthermore, the platform offers a “Slashing Coverage Program,” which provides users with insurance coverage for network-wide events such as outages and node operator failures. This is provided for by Nexus Mutual, the protocol’s treasury allocation, and node operators.Key customers and partnershipsAs of April 2024, the company operated an ecosystem of DeFi partners, which included Fireblocks, BitGo, Hashnote, Bitcoin Suisse, and Twinstake, via its Liquid Collective platform.Funding and financialsIn July 2023, Alluvial <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20041">raised USD 12 million</a> in Series A funding co-led by Ethereal Ventures and Variant.

Alluvial Finance is a software development company that provides robust solutions.

Kiln creates an enterprise-level pledge platform and provides one-click pledge services for encrypted assets. It develops validator-independent APIs and services to enable multi-provider staking. Digital assets can be staked wherever they are held, including wallets, custodians, and exchanges. As the industry evolves and the need to integrate multiple stakeholder players becomes apparent, Kiln is in an excellent position to act as an aggregator and accelerate it.  The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Paris, France.

Based in Paris, Kiln offers a suite of staking-as-a-service products that enable users to lock up their digital assets on several major proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains to earn yields. These products are validator agnostic, which enables digital assets to be staked wherever they are held. They include 1) Kiln Connect, a software development kit (SDK) that enables users to integrate staking, rewards data, and custodians on PoS blockchains; 2) Kiln On-Chain, smart contracts for Ethereum staking; 3) Kiln Dashboard, a dashboard that aggregates staking data; and 4) Kiln Validators, dedicated or shared validators deployed on multi-cloud Kubernetes infrastructure.

VanEck partners with Kiln for SOL staking, analysts predict $800 for Bitcoin Cash and $1 for Intel Markets

To integrate the Crypto.com DeFi Wallet into Kiln On-Chain’s staking platform allowing users to stake ETH.

Organizations that provide digital wallets for users to take custody of DeFi tokens

Alluvial Finance

Coinbase Ventures

Figment

Kraken

Organizations and protocols that allow individuals to lend their crypto assets and take out collateralized or uncollateralized loans from to/from these projects

Based in Paris, Kiln offers a suite of staking-as-a-service products that enable users to lock up their digital assets on several major proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains to earn yields. These products are validator agnostic, which enables digital assets to be staked wherever they are held. They include 1) Kiln Connect, a software development kit (SDK) that enables users to integrate staking, rewards data, and custodians on PoS blockchains; 2) Kiln On-Chain, smart contracts for Ethereum staking; 3) Kiln Dashboard, a dashboard that aggregates staking data; and 4) Kiln Validators, dedicated or shared validators deployed on multi-cloud Kubernetes infrastructure.Key customers and partnershipsThe company primarily targets custodians, exchanges, wallets, and treasury managers. As of November 2022, Kiln had a total value locked (TVL) of USD 500 million.In October 2024, Kiln&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35400">partnered with VanEck</a>, an asset management firm, to integrate staking capabilities into VanEck's Solana Strategy products.Funding and financialsIn January 2024, Kiln <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25704">secured USD 17 million</a> in new funding led by 1kx, to bolster its global expansion plans, particularly the growth of its APAC division via a new office in Singapore. Additionally, the company planned to invest in further product development by expanding its platform to support various reward mechanisms within DeFi.&nbsp;

MakerDAO is a DAO (governed through the MKR token) that manages the Sky protocol (formerly known as Maker).&nbsp;Developed on the Ethereum blockchain, the protocol allows users to place their funds (through cryptocurrency) as collateral in exchange for its stablecoin DAI, which is pegged to the USD. DAI can be used like any other cryptocurrency and even as savings since holders of DAI are entitled to a return based on the DAI Savings Rate (DSR). The DSR is determined by members of the DAO using a mix of public and proprietary market data.Sky offers access to investing and borrowing DAI through the Oasis app which was developed by some of the creators of protocol. In addition, the protocol is available for developers of DeFi apps who can build apps to facilitate earning, investing, and borrowing DAI. As of May 2024, Sky had integrated with over 400 applications ranging from payment systems to gaming platforms. It generates revenue through stability fees (akin to interest payment on borrowed DAI) and liquidation fees which is an additional charge that occurs when the value of the submitted collateral falls below a set liquidation amount.&nbsp;In April 2022, the protocol announced that it was bridging to StarkNet, a reportedly cheaper and faster zero-knowledge (ZK) overlay chain built by StarkWare. Along with its expansion on Ethereum, the DAO had planned to move toward a multi-chain offering with this rebuild. It planned to roll out this offering in four phases, beginning with a simple bridge between the main blockchain and StarkNet’s Layer 2.&nbsp;In February 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16269?industryIds=64">launched a new lending platform</a> named Spark Protocol, to enable users to borrow, lend, and stake DAI, the protocol’s stablecoin. The platform, which is a fork of Aave's version 3 (v3), will be built by Phoenix Labs, a research and development company formed by the DAO. Additionally, the company also announced the deployment of etherDAI, a liquid staking derivative for Ethereum that will be pegged to the value of ETH. Furthermore, in March, the protocol went on to<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17322"> approve several new proposals </a>that make changes to both its governance structure and the investment of its treasury. These changes divide the DAO’s current structure into smaller self-governed and self-sustained units named SubDAOs, which will also have their own tokens in the MakerDAO ecosystem. Moreover, the proposal also planned to increase the protocol’s revenues by investing a part of its reserves (worth USD 7 billion) into real-world assets and money-market funds.&nbsp;The platform outlined its plans for a major update (named Endgame) in May 2023. The launch was proposed to take place in five phases and will ultimately lead to the creation of a new blockchain. The road map is as follows: 1) launching new branding and website as well as upgraded versions of Dai and MKR tokens; 2) launching six Maker SubDAOs, specializing in user acquisition, decentralized frontends, and collateral allocation; 3) introducing new AI tools to assist governance, including tools for summarizing, interpreting, and generating governance proposals; 4) enabling rewards for governance participation; and 5) deploying a new blockchain to house backend logic for SubDAO tokenomics and governance security. The first phase of the update is expected to be rolled out in the summer of 2024.&nbsp;In August 2024, the protocol followed through with the first phase of its plans by <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32993">rebranding itself under the new name "Sky"</a>, and launching new versions of DAI and MKR tokens named the USDS and SKY.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsIn September 2024, Sky<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/33252"> partnered with Aave Labs</a>, to launch the “Sky Aave Force” initiative. The initiative featured key proposals such as integrating the newly launched USDS and sUSDS stablecoins on Aave’s V3 protocol, introducing an incentive program for sUSDS suppliers and deploying a direct deposit module for USDS into the Aave Lido Market. Additionally, the partnership will enable the companies to distribute SPK tokens, the native token of Sky’s lending protocol Spark, to create a market for sUSDS on Aave. Collectively, these initiatives enable users to earn yields on their sUSDS deposits from the revenues generated by Sky’s protocol and mint USDS directly on Aave without meeting the usual collateral requirements.

MakerDAO

Founded by former executives of Qualcomm, Solana Labs is the developer of the Solana blockchain, which uses the native cryptocurrency SOL. The company enables developers to create decentralized applications in its blockchain and is capable of carrying out 50,000 transactions per second (TPS) with a theoretical upper limit of 710,000 TPS for the architecture. As of May 2024, the blockchain averaged around 2,400 TPS. This is in contrast to Ethereum’s average of between 13 to 15 TPS. In addition to transaction speed, Solana also has other advantages such as lower transaction fees and improved scalability, given its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and underlying architecture. The mechanism also enables users to stake their SOL and earn yields for validating the network. Solana provides the ability to create specialized tooling and programming functionality to tokens through <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25910">Token Extensions</a>. This allows developers and businesses to establish rules for tokens, such as dictating their functionality and determining their holders, as well as embed features like whitelisting, automatic transfer fees, and confidentiality provisions for transfers.Solana also provides guides and a content aggregator website for developers to discover tools to create dApps on its blockchain. As of May 2024, more than 440 dApps were created on Solana, ranging across use cases such as DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. It also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18094">launched a ChatGPT </a>(a chatbot built on OpenAI's GPT model) plugin to allow developers and users to query the blockchain for on-chain data. The plugin works through the ChatGPT interface and allows users to perform various tasks such as checking wallet balances, transferring tokens, and purchasing NFTs.Key customers and partnershipsWeb browser developer Opera partnered with Solana in December 2021 to integrate the blockchain and create a built-in crypto wallet onto the Opera browser to improve accessibility to dApps hosted on the blockchain.As of May 2024, the company served several enterprise clients such as Shopify, Asics, Helio, and Tiplink.Funding and financialsThe total value locked (TVL) in DeFi projects across the Solana blockchain amounted to USD 4 billion as of May 2024. The company raised USD 314 million through an initial coin offering (ICO) of SOL. The ICO was co-led by Polychain Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The funding was to be used to create a venture investing arm, a trading desk, and support the development of new applications in its blockchain.

Solana

Swiss-based Eidoo is a developer of a wallet that supports cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with tokens such as DAI, MKR, AAVE, and UNI, among others. In addition, Eidoo provides a DeFi marketplace that integrates with its wallet, allowing users to trade any tokens that they hold. Eidoo also offers a debit card that allows the conversion of digital assets into fiat currencies, such as the GBP and EURO, and spending or even withdrawing cash from ATMs.Eidoo began with the proprietary token EDO, which it also used to raise USD 27.9 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. The token was then upgraded following its merger with blockchain oracle provider Provable Things to establish pNetwork, the infrastructure that facilitates cross-chain interactions between multiple decentralized apps, governed by the token PNT. To obtain an Eidoo debit card, users are required to stake PNT ranging from 20 to 200,000 for various service tiers.Eidoo had several applications such as virtual account numbers to deposit money and obtain a tokenized representation of their deposit as well as features to buy, hold, and trade NFTs in the roadmap as of December 2021.

Eidoo

Synthetix is a DAO (governed by holders of its native token SNX) that offers a platform on which users can trade and vote on the creation of on-chain synthetic assets, which are derivatives based on real-world assets. These synthetic assets enable traders to capture the price movements of assets such as cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, stocks, and commodities, among others, with zero slippage. The protocol allows users to stake SNX as collateral for the debt pool and earn weekly rewards. As of April 2022, Synthetix had USD 642 million in total value locked (TVL).Additionally, Synthetix also offers the opportunity for developers to build on top of the platform to tap into its liquidity as well as develop decentralized perpetual futures, options markets, deal coordination markets, and more. As of December 2021, the protocol served large DeFi platforms including 1inch, Curve Finance, Yearn Finance, and Paraswap.In February 2023, Synthetix <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16609?industryIds=64">deployed version 3 (v3) of its platform </a>on the Ethereum mainnet. V3 reportedly offers more efficient architecture that enables developers to create products that offer a liquid market for any financial derivative, as well as more complex decentralized applications. Additionally, the solution also offers staking and differentiated debt pools, to enable stakers to earn fees from supplying collateral to specific asset pools. The company went on to deploy its protocol on Base, an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain developed by Coinbase, in April 2024. Moreover, the company announced plans to launch a new perpetual futures exchange named Infinex in the following months.Funding and financialsIn March 2023, Synthetix <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17267">received an investment of USD 20 million </a>from DWF Labs, a Web3 venture capital company. Synthetix plans to use this investment to drive volume for its protocol across both centralized and decentralized exchanges and invest in product development.

Synthetix

Compound is an open-source lending protocol built on Ethereum that allows developers to build DeFi applications for functions such as deposits and lending. Compound offers adjusted money market interest rates based on asset-specific supply and demand and supports a number of Ethereum-based assets for users to take collateralized loans and lock-up assets without borrowing. Locked assets are automatically liquidated if an independent oracle determines that the price has dropped too low. Additionally, since assets are stored in a shared pool, even users with liquidated collateral can claim tokens if they are able to repay the general pool. Compound also <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13038">offers borrowing services</a> for institutional clients that allow them to borrow USD or USDC at a fixed annual percentage rate of 6% using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether as collateral, with a loan-to-value of 90%.As of April 2024, Compound had a total value locked (TVL) of USD 2.3 billion. The protocol is governed by its native-token COMP, which along with a variety of other digital assets that are a part of the Compound ecosystem, are supported by Coinbase Custody, a crypto asset custodian. In August 2022, Compound launched a version of its protocol named “Compound III” which features a single borrowable asset. Users can supply collateral that can never be withdrawn by other users (except during liquidation) and borrow USDC.In May 2022, Compound<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10267"> received a B- credit rating from S&amp;P Global Ratings</a> on its enterprise credit facility which offers 4% annually on deposits of the stablecoin USDC. Notably, Compound claims that this is the first time an "institutional DeFi" product has been scored by a major credit rating agency.Funding and financialsCompound’s last funding round was in November 2019 where it raised USD 25 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z crypto fund to help the company further decentralize the protocol by enabling crypto exchanges and custodians such as Coinbase to maintain the protocol going forward.

Compound

Organizations that allow individuals to invest in tokenized financial and real assets

Organizations that provide fully decentralized insurance products

Organizations that apply NFTs across areas of finance such as documentation and non-fractionalized ownership records for assets

Decentralized exchanges that help connect buyers and sellers of DeFi tokens without the need to rely on an intermediary

Blockchains and related protocols that allow developers to build DeFi apps

All companies within this industry are either blockchain-based platforms or offer blockchain-centric services

Promotes financial inclusivity, allowing those that won't traditionally have access to credit to raise funds

Companies with the infrastructure segment offer solutions for users to build decentralized applications

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Kiln, a DeFi staking infrastructure platform, has joined forces with asset management firm VanEck, to incorporate staking features into VanEck's Solana Strategy products.
 Thanks to this collaboration, VanEck's institutional investors can get involved in Solana staking minus the need to handle technical complexities, via Kiln's infrastructure. Kiln's SOC 2 Type II certified platform will back VanEck's diverse products, such as ETNs and ETFs, granting regulated exposure to the Solana ecosystem.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 This news follows a recent trend of large incumbents partnering with DeFi infrastructure platforms to offer Solana staking services to their institutional clients. Last week, <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/companies/3662468"> Bitget </a> , a crypto exchange, <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/35139"> partnered with Solayer </a> , a Solana restaking network, to introduce a liquid staking service for SOL tokens.

Kiln

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless