Hack VC

Hack VC is an early-stage venture capital firm that specializes in investing in sectors such as cryptocurrency, fintech, and marketplaces. Established in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the firm focuses on identifying and supporting innovative startups within these industries. Hack VC aims to foster growth and development in emerging technologies, particularly in information technology, software as a service, e-commerce, and artificial intelligence. As a Registered Investment Adviser, the firm is committed to adhering to regulatory standards while seeking promising investment opportunities.

Sean Brown

Research Partner

Tom Chi

Partner

Shuyao Kong

Venture Partner

Christopher Maree

Research Partner

Roshun Patel

Partner

Julian Rachman

Venture Partner

Kevin Rowney

Partner

Rodney Yesep

Partner

Past deals in Ethereum

Tac

Seed Round in 2024
TAC is a network extension that facilitates interoperability between the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) community and Telegram users. It enables holders of Ton wallets to interact seamlessly with EVM dApps (decentralized applications) deployed on TAC, thereby expanding the user base and enhancing the overall user experience.

Gelato

Series A in 2024
Gelato is web3’s cloud platform empowering builders to deploy their own Ethereum Rollups with a single-click. Designed to be super-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable, Gelato rollups allow anyone to build and deploy their fully serviced Layer 2 chains on Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Celestia and Eigenlayer at a pace natively integrated with Web3's favorite tools and services like Gelato's industry leading smart contract automation & relaying services, Etherscan, The Graph, Pyth, Layer Zero and many more launching a production-ready web3 development environment.

Semantic Layer

Seed Round in 2024
Semantic Layer improves incentive alignment in dApps, enabling MEV internationalization and sequencing sovereignty.

Initia Labs

Series A in 2024
Initia is a network for 0-to-1 omnichain rollups built by fusing a novel L1 with an interwoven application-specific L2 infrastructure system. The Initia Platform provides product ready rollups that enables teams to build scalable and sovereign systems while eliminating the UX complexities end users face when interacting with a modular multi-chain universe. Initia’s ownership of the full tech stack allows for a suite of chain-level mechanisms that align the economic interests across users, developers, L2 app chains, and the L1. Initia's initial launch products include an all-in-one portal for accessing core tools of the ecosystem, a Omnitia-ecosystem focused wallet for navigating between the L2s, a block explorer that supports InitiaVM transactions and developer tooling, and a Market Minitia that allows users to trade NFTs and create AI-generated NFT collections through prompts.

Aligned Layer

Series A in 2024
Universal Verification Layer for Ethereum using Eigenlayer

Initia Labs

Seed Round in 2024
Initia is a network for 0-to-1 omnichain rollups built by fusing a novel L1 with an interwoven application-specific L2 infrastructure system. The Initia Platform provides product ready rollups that enables teams to build scalable and sovereign systems while eliminating the UX complexities end users face when interacting with a modular multi-chain universe. Initia’s ownership of the full tech stack allows for a suite of chain-level mechanisms that align the economic interests across users, developers, L2 app chains, and the L1. Initia's initial launch products include an all-in-one portal for accessing core tools of the ecosystem, a Omnitia-ecosystem focused wallet for navigating between the L2s, a block explorer that supports InitiaVM transactions and developer tooling, and a Market Minitia that allows users to trade NFTs and create AI-generated NFT collections through prompts.

Fhenix

Seed Round in 2023
Fhenix is a pioneering company that has developed the first private blockchain utilizing completely homomorphic encryption. This technology allows Ethereum developers to create encrypted smart contracts and conduct computations on encrypted data while using familiar tools such as Solidity. Fhenix specializes in enhancing data security and privacy through its homomorphic encryption capabilities, which enable applications in various domains, including trustless gaming, private voting mechanisms—both on-chain and off-chain—privacy-preserving artificial intelligence, and confidential token transfers. By optimizing these functionalities, Fhenix aims to provide robust solutions that enhance user trust and data confidentiality in the blockchain ecosystem.

Demox Labs

Pre Seed Round in 2023
Demox Labs, founded in 2021 and based in Walnut Creek, California, specializes in developing a decentralized oracle protocol that connects smart contracts to various off-chain data sources. The company aims to bridge the gap between web2 and web3, enabling the integration of online data into smart contract development. Its platform transforms any website into an oracle, facilitating efficient data relay across different blockchain networks. Additionally, Demox Labs focuses on creating privacy-preserving wallets for web3 applications, enhancing security for users while improving the overall global payment structure.

Berachain

Series A in 2023
Berachain is a blockchain development company focused on creating an Ethereum-compatible platform designed for financial applications. Its innovative technology allows for the use of staked assets within decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, enhancing on-chain liquidity and capital efficiency. The company employs a proof of liquidity consensus mechanism to ensure sybil resistance, which fosters alignment of network incentives between validators and various projects within its ecosystem. By leveraging staked assets like staked ether, Berachain enables these locked assets to support the network's security while simultaneously facilitating their use in DeFi applications. This approach aims to provide clients with robust blockchain services that promote quality and efficiency in financial transactions.

Archimedes

Seed Round in 2023
Archimedes is a decentralized finance platform founded in 2022 and based in Los Angeles, California. It utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate a lending and borrowing marketplace that enables users to supply and borrow assets for yield generation. The platform is designed to empower decentralized actively managed funds and allows users to take leveraged positions on leading stablecoin farming protocols. Archimedes aims to enhance the DeFi experience by offering an easy-to-use and interoperable system that incorporates NFTs and other industry practices. Through its innovative approach, the company provides liquidity management solutions by packaging highly leveraged positions as tradable tokens.

Across Protocol

Venture Round in 2022
Across is a cross-chain bridge secured by UMA's optimistic oracle for L2s and rollups. It also optimized for capital efficiency with a single liquidity pool, a competitive relayer landscape, and a no-slippage fee model.

Veridise

Funding Round in 2022
Veridise is a blockchain security company that specializes in identifying and addressing vulnerabilities in various blockchain applications. Founded by a team of experienced researchers, Veridise is renowned for its expertise in auditing Zero-Knowledge Circuits, MetaMask Snaps, smart contracts, and various decentralized finance protocols. The firm employs a hybrid approach that combines traditional auditing methods with automated Web3 security tools, enabling it to uncover critical vulnerabilities that other firms may overlook. In the first half of 2023, Veridise identified over 100 high-severity bugs, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing blockchain security. The company also offers a comprehensive platform for automatically auditing smart contracts, allowing clients to implement formal methods for improved security and correctness in their blockchain projects.

Archimedes

Seed Round in 2022
Archimedes is a decentralized finance platform founded in 2022 and based in Los Angeles, California. It utilizes the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate a lending and borrowing marketplace that enables users to supply and borrow assets for yield generation. The platform is designed to empower decentralized actively managed funds and allows users to take leveraged positions on leading stablecoin farming protocols. Archimedes aims to enhance the DeFi experience by offering an easy-to-use and interoperable system that incorporates NFTs and other industry practices. Through its innovative approach, the company provides liquidity management solutions by packaging highly leveraged positions as tradable tokens.

AscendEX

Series B in 2021
AscendEX is a global operator of digital asset exchanges catering to a diverse clientele, including both retail and institutional investors. The company has developed a comprehensive trading platform that facilitates the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. Its offerings include access to financial derivatives, cash trading, margin trading, and later-stage leveraged trading on a variety of tokens. This robust platform enhances liquidity provision and presents growth opportunities within the cryptocurrency ecosystem for its users.

Wintermute

Series B in 2021
Wintermute Corporation, established in 2017, is a global leader in algorithmic trading and liquidity provision for digital assets. It facilitates over-the-counter (OTC) trading of 350+ tokens, providing liquidity across 80+ centralized and decentralized exchanges with an average daily trading volume exceeding $5 billion. Wintermute's expertise lies in pioneering decentralized finance (DeFi) trading and powering liquidity across the digital asset ecosystem. Its investment arm, Wintermute Ventures, backs early-stage Web3 projects, focusing on long-term growth and strategic relationships. Since 2020, Wintermute Ventures has invested in over 100 projects, prioritizing decentralized ownership and aligning investments with its vision of a decentralized future.

SKALE Labs

Venture Round in 2018
SKALE Labs, Inc. is a blockchain scalability platform founded in 2015 and headquartered in Atherton, California. The company develops a decentralized, open-source network designed to enhance the performance of blockchains and decentralized applications (dApps). It provides a middleware layer that enables high-speed consensus, allowing dApps to execute smart contracts at a rate of millions per second across various blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and EOS. The SKALE Network operates as a fully decentralized peer-to-peer system, supported by SKALE Mining nodes and utilizing a utility token that is staked by dApps. This innovative protocol addresses the scalability challenges faced by blockchain technologies, facilitating optimized interactions between dApps and blockchains.
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