Variant is a venture capital firm based in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2020. The firm specializes in early-stage investments within the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors, focusing on areas such as web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi). As a Registered Investment Adviser, Variant manages the Variant Opportunity Fund, which targets promising opportunities in these innovative industries. Through its investments, Variant aims to support and advance the development of transformative technologies in the digital economy.
User context management & metacognition for large language model applications.
Pluralis Research
Seed Round in 2025
Pluralis Research operates as an AI start-up that uses decentralized training to create open-source AI.
Blockaid
Series B in 2025
Blockaid enable builders to protect users from fraud, phishing and hacks.
Whetstone Research
Pre Seed Round in 2025
Whetstone Research is dedicated to the design and development of innovative protocols that facilitate the advancement of on-chain markets.
Reservoir
Series A in 2025
Reservoir operates an NFT aggregator platform that streamlines access to NFT data and facilitates the creation, storage, and execution of NFT orders. By normalizing the entire NFT market into a unified platform, it enables clients to enhance liquidity and trade NFTs across multiple major marketplaces through a single API. This innovative approach positions Reservoir as a key player in the next-generation NFT solutions market, providing essential tools for developers and businesses looking to integrate NFT trading capabilities into their applications.
Phantom
Series C in 2025
Phantom is a digital wallet specifically designed for decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It functions as a multichain wallet, allowing users to manage their cryptocurrency and NFT assets across various blockchain networks, with a primary focus on Solana. The Phantom wallet is available on multiple platforms, including mobile devices and browser extensions, enhancing accessibility for users engaged in digital finance. The wallet leverages secure and transparent digital ledger technology, enabling users to safely store, buy, send, receive, and swap tokens, as well as collect NFTs, all within a user-friendly interface.
Hyperbolic Network
Series A in 2024
Hyperbolic is a software development company that specializes in creating decentralized computing platforms. It operates an open-source platform designed for artificial intelligence development by aggregating idle computing resources. This platform enables the building and deployment of AI models by harnessing collective computing capacity, allowing individuals and organizations to access a GPU network. Users can run AI interfaces and deploy models without the need for centralized infrastructures, promoting a more distributed approach to computing and AI development.
Sapien
Seed Round in 2024
Sapien, founded in 2023, is a data labeling company focused on improving AI model training through scalable and high-quality data labeling services. The company utilizes a unique platform that connects clients with a diverse global pool of economically motivated labelers, allowing it to manage various data types, including image recognition, object detection, language translation, and text classification. By integrating advanced technology, blockchain rewards, and human feedback, Sapien not only enhances data quality but also ensures cost-effectiveness for its clients across several industries, such as healthcare, finance, and education technology. The company's innovative approach, which includes gamification and positive reinforcement for labelers, leads to superior output and high retention rates. With a commitment to ethical AI advancements, Sapien positions itself as a trusted partner for businesses seeking to develop high-performance AI models.
Delta
Seed Round in 2024
Delta is a fully integrated solution designed from the ground up to eliminate the trade-off between sovereignty and interoperability for programmers.
Satflow
Seed Round in 2024
Satflow aims to improve Bitcoin DEXs, enhance decentralization, and address issues like lack of advanced order types, high-speed data, and liquidity pools.
Morpho Labs
Venture Round in 2024
Morpho is an on-chain peer-to-peer layer on top of lending pools. Rates are seamlessly improved for borrowers and lenders while preserving the same guarantees. Morpho combines the efficiency of P2P with the liquidity of lending pools. Users enjoy an improved APY while maintaining the pool’s flexibility
Farcaster
Series A in 2024
Farcaster is a decentralized social network designed to facilitate connections among users with shared interests, including coders, fitness enthusiasts, and meme makers. The platform enables users to communicate directly without intermediaries, promoting a sense of ownership and control over their social interactions. By creating an open protocol akin to email, Farcaster allows users to claim unique usernames, store their social data off-chain, and move their identities seamlessly between applications. Furthermore, the company emphasizes the importance of increasing daily active users and provides developers with tools to build innovative applications within the network, enhancing the overall user experience.
Kiosk
Seed Round in 2024
Kiosk offers on-chain assets that are essential for social media clients that build feedback loops between assets and communities.
Turnkey
Series A in 2024
Turnkey is a company that specializes in providing scalable wallet infrastructure for cryptocurrency developers, focusing on the management of private keys. Its platform simplifies the process of building applications that require wallet functionalities and cryptographic transactions, allowing developers to generate and manage private keys across various blockchains. The product suite includes features such as flexible signing and intuitive security controls, ensuring that security is not compromised while facilitating the development process for businesses in the crypto space.
Botto
Seed Round in 2024
Botto is a decentralized platform that operates as an autonomous artist governed by its community. It focuses on generating art through community feedback, allowing members to participate in the creative process. The platform utilizes a series of contracts that ensure transparency and security, having undergone auditing to guarantee reliability. These contracts facilitate standardized functions related to tokens, transfers, bank approvals, and Ethereum transactions. Users can view various art pieces and vote on their favorites, fostering a collaborative environment where community preferences shape the artistic output.
Delegate
Seed Round in 2024
Delegate is a company that specializes in enhancing the security of on-chain identities and the management of digital assets, including NFTs and ERC20 tokens. It has developed a decentralized registry that safeguards digital assets through innovative features. The platform allows users to securely manage their vaulted NFTs, claim airdrops, and prove ownership directly from their hot wallets. By providing these services, Delegate enables NFT holders to protect their assets and engage in various opportunities within the digital asset ecosystem.
Gevulot
Seed Round in 2024
Gevulot is a provider of blockchain technology solutions that specializes in zero-knowledge proofs. The company has developed a platform that enables developers to implement these proofs while delegating computing tasks to a network of advanced hardware operators. Gevulot's system facilitates verification through a structure that resembles smart contracts, allowing for the balancing, transferring, and staking of financial transactions alongside the deployment of proof systems. This innovative approach enhances the security and efficiency of digital interactions while maintaining user privacy.
Modulus
Seed Round in 2023
Modulus uses cryptography to verify that AI results weren't doctored. It was founded in 2021 and is located in San Francisco, California.
Blockaid
Series A in 2023
Blockaid enable builders to protect users from fraud, phishing and hacks.
Blackbird
Series A in 2023
Blackbird Labs is a web3 hospitality technology platform founded in 2022 by Ben Leventhal and based in New York, United States. The company focuses on directly connecting restaurants with their customers through loyalty and membership services. By leveraging innovative software solutions, Blackbird Labs aims to enhance the dining experience, facilitating meaningful and ongoing interactions between restaurants and their guests. The platform is designed to transform how hospitality businesses engage with their clientele, ultimately elevating customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Lens Protocol
Seed Round in 2023
Lens Protocol is a composable and decentralized social network serving the Web3 community. It enables creators to build their own web3 social media platforms and accounts, giving them control over their connections with their communities and also ownership over their content.
Turnkey
Seed Round in 2023
Turnkey is a company that specializes in providing scalable wallet infrastructure for cryptocurrency developers, focusing on the management of private keys. Its platform simplifies the process of building applications that require wallet functionalities and cryptographic transactions, allowing developers to generate and manage private keys across various blockchains. The product suite includes features such as flexible signing and intuitive security controls, ensuring that security is not compromised while facilitating the development process for businesses in the crypto space.
Scroll.io
Venture Round in 2023
Scroll.io provides a native zkEVM scaling solution for Ethereum. The company upholds the Ethereum network's high-security features while offering users nearly instantaneous, inexpensive transactions.
Aztec
Series B in 2022
Aztec is focused on developing a trading protocol for Ethereum that facilitates private transactions on the public blockchain. The company is recognized for its research team, which has been instrumental in creating PLONK, an advanced standard in zero-knowledge technologies. This team has achieved several significant research and development advancements in Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum, leveraging their extensive expertise in implementing complex cryptosystems for the Web3 ecosystem. Aztec also enhances the user experience through its zk.money platform, which exemplifies the capabilities of the Aztec Connect SDK to enable seamless integration with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as Lido and Element. Furthermore, Aztec is committed to building an encrypted blockchain that operates securely on the Ethereum network.
Shibuya
Seed Round in 2022
Shibuya is a web3 content studio and creator platform that focuses on decentralization and blockchain technology to transform content creation and distribution. The platform offers tools and resources that empower creators to produce high-quality video content while maintaining direct access to their audiences. By leveraging non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Shibuya provides a unique business model for monetizing long-form content, addressing a gap in the current market. The company's mission is to redefine how content is created, owned, and consumed, fostering deeper connections between creators and their fans, ultimately driving platform growth.
Perennial Labs
Seed Round in 2022
Perennial Labs is a decentralized finance (DeFi) company established in 2022 in New Castle, Delaware. The firm has developed a protocol that simplifies the trading of derivatives, making it easier for developers to create DeFi tools. By offering a permission-free platform, Perennial enables a range of users to engage with its services. The protocol is designed to provide traders with a flexible and capital-efficient model for liquidity provision while allowing developers to easily compose DeFi derivatives. This focus on accessibility and efficiency positions Perennial Labs as a valuable resource in the evolving DeFi landscape.
Matter Labs
Series C in 2022
Matter Labs is a blockchain technology company founded in 2018, with its headquarters in Berlin, Germany, and an additional presence in George Town, Cayman Islands. The company focuses on scaling Ethereum through the implementation of zero-knowledge proofs, which facilitate secure interactions between untrusted parties on the network. Matter Labs aims to enhance public blockchain adoption by providing solutions that improve scalability and privacy. Its technology allows decentralized applications to operate more efficiently while ensuring verifiable computation, enabling parties to prove integrity without compromising privacy. The company's mission is driven by a commitment to creating an open and free alternative to existing financial systems.
Uniswap
Series B in 2022
Uniswap Labs is a software company founded in 2018 by Hayden Adams, who created the Uniswap Protocol, a decentralized platform for swapping digital assets. The protocol has facilitated $2.75 trillion in transaction volume since its inception. Uniswap Labs focuses on developing widely used decentralized finance (DeFi) products, including a user-friendly web interface, a self-custody mobile wallet, and an API tailored for professional market participants. The platform empowers liquidity providers and traders by offering a financial marketplace that is open and accessible to all. Utilizing smart contracts, it enables secure and decentralized on-chain conversions of assets, allowing users to trade tokens directly without intermediaries while defining asset prices based on the liquidity staked in the system.
Blackbird
Seed Round in 2022
Blackbird Labs is a web3 hospitality technology platform founded in 2022 by Ben Leventhal and based in New York, United States. The company focuses on directly connecting restaurants with their customers through loyalty and membership services. By leveraging innovative software solutions, Blackbird Labs aims to enhance the dining experience, facilitating meaningful and ongoing interactions between restaurants and their guests. The platform is designed to transform how hospitality businesses engage with their clientele, ultimately elevating customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Koop
Seed Round in 2022
Koop is a developer of a digital wallet application that facilitates the collection of coins and NFTs within a shared treasury. This application enables users to invest in their communities and collaborate with friends, fostering a sense of communal growth. By leveraging a treasury formed from an NFT collection or membership pass, Koop allows its members to engage as viewers, users, and builders within their group. The platform aims to enhance community interaction and investment, allowing participants to explore and contribute to their collective interests.
Tephra Labs
Seed Round in 2022
Tephra Labs operates a human coordination platform designed to connect independent workers and teams with projects in the web3 space. The company focuses on creating infrastructure that fosters a modern, global approach to work. Its platform emphasizes decentralized reputation systems and skills attestation protocols, which help establish trust and verification in the workforce. Additionally, Tephra Labs provides educational curricula and programs aimed at effectively onboarding workers into web3 opportunities, facilitating a user-owned and value-accretive economy.
Empiric Network
Seed Round in 2022
Empiric is the oracle on Starknet, built to empower native protocols to realize their ambitious potential.
Morpho Labs
Seed Round in 2022
Morpho is an on-chain peer-to-peer layer on top of lending pools. Rates are seamlessly improved for borrowers and lenders while preserving the same guarantees. Morpho combines the efficiency of P2P with the liquidity of lending pools. Users enjoy an improved APY while maintaining the pool’s flexibility
Entropy
Seed Round in 2022
Entropy provides crypto custody services to keep private keys secure and make assets available on demand. Its services specialize in creating a decentralized network leveraging advanced threshold cryptography and multi-party computation. The company was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in New York.
Euler Labs
Venture Round in 2022
Euler is a non-custodial lending protocol built on Ethereum that allows users to lend and borrow a wide range of crypto assets without relying on a trusted third party. The platform offers a capital-efficient solution for earning interest on crypto holdings and provides mechanisms to hedge against market volatility. By utilizing reactive interest rates informed by control theory, Euler's system adapts in real-time to market conditions, enabling users to manage risk effectively. This innovative approach allows clients to engage with a diverse array of crypto assets while minimizing risk exposure.
Context
Seed Round in 2022
Context is a Web3 business that allows users to “track” the transactions of any crypto wallet. It offers an app that enables users to track the wallets and transactions of individuals they follow on Twitter. Aside from that, users may track the activities of friends, influencers, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), and celebrities using Context. Context was co-founded in 2021 by Luke Miles and Adam Ludwin.
Context
Seed Round in 2022
Context is a Web3 wallet watcher app that allows users to observe people's wallets and transactions through an Instagram-like feed. It also has a new feature that allows users to find wallets linked to the people they follow on Twitter automatically.
Aptos
Seed Round in 2022
Aptos is a web3 startup founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, California. The company develops a scalable Layer 1 blockchain that allows developers to create future-proof applications. Aptos aims to provide universal access to decentralized assets through its network, utilizing a safe and reliable programming language that facilitates application development. The team at Aptos is composed of skilled engineers, researchers, strategists, designers, and builders, all working towards enhancing the accessibility and scalability of blockchain infrastructure for developers.
3Box Labs
Series A in 2022
3Box Inc. is a New York-based company founded in 2018 that provides innovative solutions for decentralized identity and open data management. Its primary offerings include 3box.io, a social profiles application designed for Ethereum users and communities, and 3box.js, an API that facilitates user onboarding and data management for web3 developers. Additionally, the company provides 3box-dapp, which enables users to create and manage their social profiles, sign in to decentralized applications (dApps), interact with other users, build a reputation, and securely store data. The 3Box platform prioritizes simplicity, security, and privacy, allowing applications that utilize its services to be more trustworthy and reduce data management liabilities.
DIMO
Seed Round in 2022
DIMO is a user-owned connected vehicle platform. It allows drivers to access next-generation mobility apps and earn $DIMO for sharing data from their cars.
onCyber
Seed Round in 2022
onCyber is a metaverse company founded in 2021 and based in New York, specializing in the creation and display of 3D virtual showrooms for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The platform enables artists and collectors to showcase their digital assets in immersive environments, allowing users to display their favorite NFTs on the walls of high-quality virtual spaces. By providing a custom link, onCyber facilitates the sharing of these digital experiences, allowing users to engage with their collections in a dynamic and interactive manner, all without incurring any charges.
IndiGG
Seed Round in 2022
IndiGG is an NFT based play-to-earn game in the web3 frontier. IndiGG is the India sub-decentralized autonomous organization(subDAO) of YGG.
Aztec
Series A in 2021
Aztec is focused on developing a trading protocol for Ethereum that facilitates private transactions on the public blockchain. The company is recognized for its research team, which has been instrumental in creating PLONK, an advanced standard in zero-knowledge technologies. This team has achieved several significant research and development advancements in Layer 2 solutions for Ethereum, leveraging their extensive expertise in implementing complex cryptosystems for the Web3 ecosystem. Aztec also enhances the user experience through its zk.money platform, which exemplifies the capabilities of the Aztec Connect SDK to enable seamless integration with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as Lido and Element. Furthermore, Aztec is committed to building an encrypted blockchain that operates securely on the Ethereum network.
Sound
Seed Round in 2021
Sound connects artists and listeners to take ownership over the culture they create together.
Burrata
Seed Round in 2021
Burrata is a computer software developer focused on facilitating the transition from Web2 to Web3. The company specializes in creating decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that assist in building and identifying information bridges. These protocols provide an integration layer designed to standardize, process, and prioritize the influx of Web2 data on-chain. This capability enables users to navigate Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements without the need for repeated verification or disclosure of personal information. Through its innovative solutions, Burrata aims to enhance the user experience in the evolving digital landscape.
WorldCoin
Venture Round in 2021
World is a company that connects users through a privacy-focused network designed for secure digital asset management. It offers a digital currency platform that emphasizes both privacy and transparency using a permissionless blockchain. The World App enables users to securely store their World ID, manage digital assets, and access various Mini Apps, promoting global connectivity and trust. Additionally, World provides an iris-scanning device that enhances digital identity security by storing biometric information, which helps discourage spammers from creating multiple accounts. This combination of secure identity management and digital currency aims to facilitate a reliable and user-friendly digital environment.
Syndicate
Series A in 2021
Syndicate is a decentralized asset management platform and social network designed to democratize investing. It facilitates the creation of investing syndicates, allowing users to raise and invest capital quickly and efficiently. The platform supports the formation of decentralized autonomous organizations, empowering communities to engage in collaborative investment opportunities. By streamlining the investment process, Syndicate aims to transform traditional value creation methods and enhance accessibility for a broader audience.
Tessera
Seed Round in 2021
Tessera's mission is to curate the most extraordinary collective ownership experiences produced by the greatest creators, builders, and leaders. Tessera's vision is a world where anyone can have the opportunity to collectively own and govern things they value, without reliance on central gatekeepers to execute decisions and actions on their behalf.
Phantom
Series A in 2021
Phantom is a digital wallet specifically designed for decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It functions as a multichain wallet, allowing users to manage their cryptocurrency and NFT assets across various blockchain networks, with a primary focus on Solana. The Phantom wallet is available on multiple platforms, including mobile devices and browser extensions, enhancing accessibility for users engaged in digital finance. The wallet leverages secure and transparent digital ledger technology, enabling users to safely store, buy, send, receive, and swap tokens, as well as collect NFTs, all within a user-friendly interface.
Gearbox Protocol
Pre Seed Round in 2021
Gearbox Protocol is a decentralized leveraged protocol provider that enables users to obtain leverage in a straightforward manner. The protocol operates as a two-sided lending marketplace, facilitating leverage that can be utilized across various decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms in a composable way. Gearbox Protocol offers a software platform that delivers leverage-as-a-service, allowing clients to automate and program their DeFi positions. This approach enhances capital efficiency and improves the overall composability of users' financial activities within the decentralized ecosystem.
Aleo
Venture Round in 2021
Aleo provides a platform for building fully private applications using zero-knowledge technology. It offers a comprehensive toolkit that includes an application runtime environment, allowing software to compile, execute, and finalize its state autonomously. Aleo also supports a statically-typed programming language called Leo, designed specifically for private application development on the Aleo blockchain. The company engages its community through blogs and incentive programs to test the bounds of its decentralized technology.
Gro
Seed Round in 2021
Gro builds products, called protocols or autonomous programs, for a more simple and friendly DeFi experience. Gro empowers people to easily create and share wealth, by combining the best of decentralized and legacy finance.
Fei Protocol
Series A in 2021
Fei Labs is focused on developing open-source decentralized applications, primarily through the creation of a scalable stablecoin. This stablecoin aims to address challenges posed by whale activity in existing dollar-pegged products, promoting a more equitable financial ecosystem. The platform employs a novel stablecoin mechanism that ensures capital efficiency, fair distribution, and full decentralization. By doing so, it enables users to utilize the stablecoin in maintaining liquid secondary markets, thus enhancing the overall functionality and accessibility of decentralized finance solutions.
Verto
Pre Seed Round in 2021
Verto is a decentralized network that allows individuals to create and host their own trading posts for exchanging tokenized assets. Built on a blockweave infrastructure, Verto provides an open platform where developers can earn incentives through a unique mechanism that generates micro-dividends as long as their applications are active. This structure empowers users to select their preferred trading posts and facilitates the efficient trading of tokenized securities, promoting a more accessible and flexible exchange environment.
Goldfinch
Venture Round in 2021
Goldfinch is a credit platform that offers crypto loans without collateral. It also offers capital in a digital currency by expanding access to capital in emerging markets and offers a stable yield to the lenders, enabling the empowerment of financial inclusion in emerging markets. The company was founded in 2020 by Mike Sall and Blake West.
Cozy Finance
Seed Round in 2020
Cozy Finance, Inc. is a Seattle-based company that specializes in developing risk management software tailored for the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. Founded in 2020, the company offers a permissionless, peer-to-peer protection solution that enables users to invest in DeFi while safeguarding their assets against potential hacks and exploits. Additionally, Cozy Finance allows users to deposit funds, which can then be utilized by others for protected investing. By providing innovative tools and solutions, Cozy Finance aims to enhance the security and value management of cryptocurrency investments for developers and investors alike.
Uniswap
Series A in 2020
Uniswap Labs is a software company founded in 2018 by Hayden Adams, who created the Uniswap Protocol, a decentralized platform for swapping digital assets. The protocol has facilitated $2.75 trillion in transaction volume since its inception. Uniswap Labs focuses on developing widely used decentralized finance (DeFi) products, including a user-friendly web interface, a self-custody mobile wallet, and an API tailored for professional market participants. The platform empowers liquidity providers and traders by offering a financial marketplace that is open and accessible to all. Utilizing smart contracts, it enables secure and decentralized on-chain conversions of assets, allowing users to trade tokens directly without intermediaries while defining asset prices based on the liquidity staked in the system.
DeSo Foundation
Seed Round in 2020
DeSo is a layer-1 blockchain, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, that recently listed on Coinbase, has accumulated over 1.5 million accounts, and just crossed over $1B in volume transacted on-chain. DeSo is backed by Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Social Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and many others. Our mission is to decentralize social media the same way Bitcoin and Ethereum are decentralizing the financial system. As a layer-1 blockchain, DeSo can be compared to other blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, etc... However, DeSo has several major advantages over these platforms, the largest being that it is designed to power storage-heavy applications (like social applications and marketplaces). To put it in perspective, storing just a 200-character "Tweet" on Ethereum costs ~$80, and costs ~$0.25-$1.00+ on Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, and virtually all other smart contract chains. In contrast, it costs 1/1,000th of a penny on DeSo, which is why breakthrough apps like Diamond, DAODAO, Pearl, OpenProsper, NFTz, and Entre, now possible exclusively on DeSo. Today, social media is even more centralized than the financial industry was prior to the creation of Bitcoin. A handful of private entities effectively control public discourse, and earn monopoly profits off of content that they don't even create. Society’s answer to financial centralization was not to put Warren Buffett in charge of money, it was to use technology, namely Bitcoin, so we could have nobody in charge. We believe the same type of technology will cause this conclusion to ultimately play out in social. DeSo’s advantages make it capable of breaking this status quo for the first time, and bringing competition and innovation back to social in much the same way Bitcoin and Ethereum have done for our financial system. Moreover, if DeSo succeeds, we will no longer need individual "dictators" to set a homogenous moderation policy for hundreds of millions of people.
Polygon
Polygon is a platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development and web3. Its growing suite of products offers developers easy access to all scaling and infrastructure solutions: L2 solutions (ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups), sidechains, hybrid solutions, stand-alone and enterprise chains, data availability solutions, and more. Polygon’s scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with 7,000+ applications hosted, 1B+ total transactions processed, ~130M+ unique user addresses, and $5B+ in assets secured.
TrueX
TrueX is a non-custodial, stablecoin-native exchange that represents the next stage in crypto markets.
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