Top 50 Payments Startup Investors in October 2023

Portfolio highlights

• Axoni — Axoni is a New York-based capital markets technology firm that specializes in distributed ledger infrastructure. Product offerings include blockchain deployments, large-scale data management, bespoke smart contract development, analytics services, and connectivity tools.
• AlloyX — AlloyX makes it simple and accessible for protocols, DAOs, and institutional investors to create diversified RWA investment strategies. We provide lenders with a flexible and efficient platform for managing all of their RWA assets based on their yield, risk, and liquidity preferences.
• Coinflow Labs — Coinflow is a payment solution that allows Web3 companies to accept traditional payment methods and payout their customers by converting cryptocurrency to USD in their traditional bank account.

Portfolio highlights

• FirstMate — FirstMate is a software company that designs and develops software tools for NFT creators.
• Rocket Pool — Your friendly decentralised Ethereum staking protocol
• Mountain Protocol — At Mountain Protocol, we believe that everyone deserves access to the "risk-free rate" through a secure, regulated, and enterprise-grade product that elevates the world finance industry. Our yield-bearing stablecoin, USDM, provides permissionless composability, regulatory compliance, and an enterprise-grade setup with a seamless userexperience. Backed by US Treasuries and custodied by Fidelity in a bankruptcy-remote setup.

Portfolio highlights

• Kaso — Elkaso is the leading Order and Procurement Management Tool for Restaurants and Suppliers in the Middle East.
• Momento — Momento is an insurtech company with the objective of revolutionizing the insurance industry in Latin America, starting with car insurance. We want to make insurance easy and accessible for the underserved population in LATAM.
• Equilibrium Energy — Equilibrium Energy operates at the intersection of grid variability, market volatility, economic optimization, commercial structuring, trading, and risk management, across the end-to-end power value chain. Their ambition is to become a next-generation clean power company that reshapes the energy industry. They address inquiries through onlineapplications.

Portfolio highlights

• GoldLink — GoldLink is a decentralized, on-chain undercollateralized lending protocol utilizing a novel and modular lending architecture to offer borrowers powerful, sophisticated investment strategies beyond anything offered in the space today.
• P0x Labs — P0x labs is the team behind Manta Network is a privacy-preserving technology operating on the Polkadot blockchain.
• Connext — Bridge tokens and data across 11+ chains. Earn and build on the most secure interoperability network.

Portfolio highlights

• Castelion — We are a modern defense production company building the next generation of military hypersonic, vehicle, and strike systems to deter future wars.
• Headway — Headway is a mental healthcare system provider based in New York. It develops a health insurance advisory platform designed to connect patients with therapists and provides administrative support to therapists who don’t typically accept insurance. The company was founded by Andrew Adams, Jake Sussman, Dan Ross, and Kevin Chan in 2019.
• Blackbird — We believe the next great hospitality technology platform should connect restaurants and their customers directly, in meaningful and ongoing ways. Blackbird is founded by a team with a passion for restaurants and a track record of using technology to solve problems.

Portfolio highlights

• Brine.fi — The best onchain spot trading crypto exchange
• Florida Street — PIXEL GG INC.
• Maverick Protocol — Trade. Earn. Any Asset. Stop paying for price discovery. Enjoy higher capital efficiency.

Portfolio highlights

• Induced AI — Induced AI works to automate browser tasks. It runs a cloud to complete manual tasks on a browser with human-like reasoning capabilities.
• Modular — Modular is the next-generation AI developer platform unifying the development and deployment of AI for the world.
• Evidence — Evidence is an open source, code-based alternative to drag-and-drop BI tools. Build polished data products with just SQL and markdown.

Portfolio highlights

• Risc Zero. — RISC Zero is revolutionizing the internet by creating the infrastructure & tooling for Web3 developers around the globe to build zero-proof software.
• Lens Protocol — Lens Protocol is a composable and decentralized social graph, ready for you to build on so you can focus on creating a great experience, not scaling your users.
• Tools For Humanity — Tools For Humanity is a technology company built to ensure a more just economic system.

Portfolio highlights

• D3 — D3 - DNS Domains for Web3
• jiritsu.network — Jiritsu is a decentralized protocol enabling verifiable compute.
• Mythic Protocol — Mythic Protocol is an entertainment company that develops games, media and platforms.

Portfolio highlights

• Risc Zero. — RISC Zero is revolutionizing the internet by creating the infrastructure & tooling for Web3 developers around the globe to build zero-proof software.
• Connext — Bridge tokens and data across 11+ chains. Earn and build on the most secure interoperability network.
• Alluvial Finance — Building the enterprise-grade liquid staking standard

Portfolio highlights

• Clozer — Sell experiences & run gamified giveaways to grow your music streams
• move.ai — Move.ai provides motion capture platforms and tools to enable augmented and extended reality productions using AI and computer vision.
• SupraOracles — We're supercharging oracles to provide blockchains better, faster, accurate, and more secure off-chain data.

Portfolio highlights

• Induced AI — Induced AI works to automate browser tasks. It runs a cloud to complete manual tasks on a browser with human-like reasoning capabilities.
• Parallax — Receive money as if you were abroad. Save big with best rates and lowest fees. Withdraw instantly.
• Proof of Play — We are a team of veteran game developers and entrepreneurs creating onchain games and open source technology. Our vision is simple: to create generation-defining games that fundamentally grant power and ownership to the players who play them.

Portfolio highlights

• Florida Street — PIXEL GG INC.
• Ethena — Ethena provides derivative infrastructure in order to transform Ethereum into the first crypto-native yield bearing stablecoin.
• Mahjong Meta — Mahjong Meta is a Web3 gaming platform on Ethereum, providing Mahjong lovers with an innovative gaming experience.

Portfolio highlights

• OpenCover — Cover $5,000 from $1.14 per week on leading protocols including Curve, Uniswap, Aave and more. As seen on CoinDesk, Decrypt, The Block, Coin Telegraph.
• Poko — Enable local payments and successful onramping for wallets, NFT marketplaces, web3 games, and dApps globally.
• Mnemonic, Inc — Easily build, ship, and scale powerful NFT applications with Mnemonic's complete, reliable, and real time data and analytics capabilities.

Portfolio highlights

• 3Commas — 3Commas provides a platform for cryptocurrency investors to trade with minimal risks, limit losses, and increase profits. 3Commas was founded in 2017 and is based in Toronto, Ontario.
• Fuel Labs — At Fuel, we are building the fastest execution layer for the modular blockchain stack.
• Optim Finance — Optim Finance provides investment tools that optimize yield on digital assets. Their financial primitives enable users to rent ADA delegation rights to power novel use cases such as SPO loans, leverage into ISOs, and initial bonds.

Portfolio highlights

• Yaysay — Yaysay is a first-of-its-kind shopping software that mixes AI-powered customization with gamification to enhance the off-price shopping experience.
• Plan A — Automate your company's ESG and carbon footprint reporting and reduce your emissions. Create decarbonisation plans plans based on data and science.
• Farther Finance — Everything we do is to help you grow and protect your wealth. We strive to expand your choices and remove obstacles to building the life you want to live.

Portfolio highlights

• Anoma — An intent-centric architecture for decentralized counterparty discovery, solving, information flow control, & multi-chain atomic settlement
• Hourglass — Our mission at the Hourglass Collective is to grow adoption of real-world blockchain utility by incubating projects that bridge the crypto space with mainstream entertainment, popular apps, major retail brands and large-scale events
• Ellipsis Labs — Ellipsis Labs is building Phoenix, a decentralized limit order book on Solana that is fully on-chain, non-custodial, and crankless.

Portfolio highlights

• Brine.fi — The best onchain spot trading crypto exchange
• Gleen AI — Delight your customers. Get Gleen, the world's most accurate & capable generative AI-based chatbot. Trustworthy answers. Automatic actions. Unify knowledge.
• Catalyst — Contributing to Catalyst, the permissionless liquidity layer for modular chains.

Portfolio highlights

• Delabs Games — At Delabs Games, we want to create fun games that last a thousand years.
• SupraOracles — We're supercharging oracles to provide blockchains better, faster, accurate, and more secure off-chain data.
• Story Protocol — Story Protocol is building open IP infrastructure to grow the creativity of the internet era.

Portfolio highlights

• Layer N — Layer N is a layer 2 network designed to hyper-scale financial applications on Ethereum.
• GamePhilos — GamePhilos is to offer player digital ownership to mobile strategy games.
• Pixion Games — Pixion Games is a studio focused on building competitive esports games for mobile device.

Portfolio highlights

• EDX Markets — Edx description website
• Friend.Tech — Friend.tech is a decentralized social media app that allows users to tokenize their friends.
• Utopia Labs — Trusted by leading DAOs to streamline operations, manage payroll, and consolidate financial reporting.

Portfolio highlights

• Sort — Sort: Supercharged collaboration for your database
• Puffer Finance — Puffer Finance operates as a blockchain infrastructure company.
• Stroom Network — Liquid staking protocol in bitcoin lignthning network

Portfolio highlights

• ZetaChain — An EVM-compatible L1 blockchain that connects everything: Build interoperable dApps that span any chain including Bitcoin, access all chains from one place.
• Cryptoworth — Cryptoworth is a cryptocurrency solution and consultancy company working hard at the intersection of cryptocurrencies, blockchains, business and people to better-serve the fin-tech industry. Cryptoworth was created to reduce the complexity of cryptocurrency adoption, usage, and management. Cryptoworth provides the best cryptocurrency and blockchainsolutions for use cases spanning from single users to large institutions.
• Trident Digital — Trident Digital is restoring market liquidity by providing the next-generation digital asset platform that addresses issues with access, security, and capital efficiency. It allows lenders and borrowers to connect transparently and not rely on a central counterparty.

Portfolio highlights

• Fhenix — End-to-End Encrypted Web3 Fhenix is the first blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption to bring Computation Over Encrypted Data to EVM smart contracts Join us Learn more A new, encrypted web is waiting for you Truly functional markets require end-to-end encryption. Fhenix rises to the challenge by unlocking unprecedented encryption capabilities in the public blockchain
• Tableland — A 3k generative NFT built from 1,074 handcrafted works of art for the builders and creatives of cyberspace.
• FastLane — FastLane is an easy to integrate protocol that rewards participating validators for protecting the health of the Polygon blockchain.

Portfolio highlights

• Apron — Sort, pay and reconcile your invoices in seconds.
• Worldover — Cosmetic compliance made simple
• Class Companion — Class Companion is a new AI technology that allows professors to provide students with immediate, individualized feedback.

Portfolio highlights

• Freename — Redefining Web3 Naming System. Web3 Registrar: custom TLDs and Domains
• LunarCrush — Smarter crypto, NFT, and stock investing with insights from millions of conversations happening across social.
• SuperSight — SuperSight (https://supersight.xyz/), a UK-based start-up, is building crypto-specific Large Language Models (LLMs) to revolutionise the way we interact with crypto data. With 420 million crypto users but only 30,000 able to code for onchain insights, SuperSight bridges the gap, enabling easy access to information from a range ofboth on-chain and off-chain sources like Discord, Telegram, Twitter, Mirror, Podcast Transcripts, and news sites. Beyond just collecting data, SuperSight uses AI to improve the search experience, making it personalised, accurate, and ultimately, more insightful.

Portfolio highlights

• Meeno — Meeno is a relationship mentoring app powered by generative AI
• PartyKit — PartyKit is an open source deployment platform for AI agents.
• Iambic Therapeutics — Iambic has created a cutting-edge AI-driven platform to tackle the most challenging design problems in drug discovery and address unmet patient need.

Portfolio highlights

• OP3N — Founded in 2021 as a subsidiary of EST Media Holdings, OP3N is the global Web3 superapp that serves as a one-stop-shop for all communication, connection and commerce with on-chain interactions in a simple unified interface. With a mission to create a more frictionless, decentralized and democratized creator economy on a global scale, OP3Nconsolidates the tools needed to mint, share and engage with digital goods and digital tokens into one vertical stack. OP3N’s leadership team leverages its cross-industry expertise from the entertainment, gaming and tech ecosystems, to lay the foundations for a new era of community-driven, inclusive entertainment while bringing everyone together on a journey into Web3. OP3N is co-led by media executive, artist, and serial entrepreneur Jaeson Ma, who has a successful track record launching companies including EST Studios, Stampede Ventures, East West Ventures, and 88rising, and who’s raised capital and advised on transactions totaling over $1 billion; and Eric Tu, an award-winning development executive who’s worked with major brands including Nike, Beats by Dre and Google, and as an Executive Producer with Bjork, Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar and more. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles. For more information, please visit: https://op3n.world.OP3N’s portfolio of projects includes a partnership with Tokyo fashion label AMBUSH; an intergalactic children’s book from Grimes; a partnership with entertainment icon Simon Fuller to produce an innovative musical film with the global pop group Now United; and the “Maybe You’re the Problem” music video from the singer-songwriter Ava Max, directed by the celebrated music video director Joseph Kahn.
• Risc Zero. — RISC Zero is revolutionizing the internet by creating the infrastructure & tooling for Web3 developers around the globe to build zero-proof software.
• Superplastic — Superplastic is a character-based product and entertainment company. It creates limited edition art toys, apparel, games, and animation based on characters created in collaboration with some of the greatest artists in the world. Superplastic is founded on the principle that effort and scarcity are intrinsic components of value. The companyappropriates the tools of mass media and mass production to create limited edition works of art for a limited audience. It was established in 2017 and is based in Burlington, Vermont.

Portfolio highlights

• Rated — Rated offers data on validators and node operators, which makes it easier for users to compare and contrast their performance.
• Fhenix — End-to-End Encrypted Web3 Fhenix is the first blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption to bring Computation Over Encrypted Data to EVM smart contracts Join us Learn more A new, encrypted web is waiting for you Truly functional markets require end-to-end encryption. Fhenix rises to the challenge by unlocking unprecedented encryption capabilities in the public blockchain
• Essential — Essential is building intent-based infrastructure & tooling to accelerate the transition from value extraction to intent satisfaction.

Portfolio highlights

• Metaloop — Metaloop is a scrap trading company that helps businesses from the metal recycling industry to boost revenue without scaling.
• Cardino — Cardino - Verkaufen Sie Ihr E-Auto digital zum besten Preis. Entdecken Sie die einfache und bequeme Art, Ihr Elektroauto online zu verkaufen.
• Beckley Waves — Beckley Waves funds, supports, and mentors the emerging leaders, entrepreneurs, and partnerships working to create the operational infrastructure of a global psychedelic ecosystem.

Portfolio highlights

• SigNoz — SigNoz is an open-source observability tool to help you find issues in your deployed applications & solve them quickly. It provides logs, metrics, and traces under a single pane of glass. Built with ClickHouse as datastore, it is designed to handle enterprise scale.
• teachme.to — Teachme.to is a community of learners discovering lessons for everything.
• Canid — We believe vaccinating shouldn't be hard and it shouldn't be a distraction from what's most important: taking care of the kids.

Portfolio highlights

• Degame — Degame is an NFT gaming platform that provides token analytics, tracking, research, gaming strategy, and IGO.
• Tres — Crypto Accounting and Web3 Treasury - Enable financial workflows such as reconciliation, balance calculation, audit and reporting. Now businesses can monitor, manage and account for their Web3 assets from on-ramp to off-ramp.
• Thala Labs — Unleash the liquidity of your assets with our Stablecoin, AMM, and Launchpad

Portfolio highlights

• Breez — Lightning Fast Bitcoin Payments
• Relai — Relai is a Bitcoin investment app that allows anyone to buy bitcoin within one minutes or set up an automated savings plan.
• AMBOSS — Lightning Network Explorer and Analytics Tools. Search for nodes and channels on the Lightning Network and get detailed information on them.

Portfolio highlights

• GRVT — Trade on the next-gen hybrid derivatives exchange 100% self-custody. 0% counterparty risk. Traditional finance meets the power of blockchain.
• Fhenix — End-to-End Encrypted Web3 Fhenix is the first blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption to bring Computation Over Encrypted Data to EVM smart contracts Join us Learn more A new, encrypted web is waiting for you Truly functional markets require end-to-end encryption. Fhenix rises to the challenge by unlocking unprecedented encryption capabilities in the public blockchain
• Florida Street — PIXEL GG INC.

Portfolio highlights

• Wixpool — Wixpool is a liquidity mining mechanism that is based on the Wixpool Rate Stabiliser (WRS) algorithm. Wixpool, led by WRS, allows anybody to invest in high-yield liquidity pools with a steady interest rate by pooling the assets of private users into an automated ecosystem.
• Thala Labs — Unleash the liquidity of your assets with our Stablecoin, AMM, and Launchpad
• Frontrunner — Frontrunner is a decentralized sports prediction market where users can buy shares of sports propositions and trade them like they would stocks. Unlike traditional sportsbooks where users place a bet and wait, Frontrunner gives users full control over their portfolios, allowing them to dynamically buy and sell positions as the odds change. Byleveraging the power of free markets and the blockchain, we create fully transparent markets and liquid positions which fundamentally change the way that people invest in their sports knowledge and beliefs. The vision is to bring DeFi concepts like AMMs, margin trading, and perpetuals to a marketplace of sports derivatives, creating parity between financial and sports betting markets.

Portfolio highlights

• Mimbi — Mimbi provides brands and agencies with a platform that allows them to better measure & optimize the impact of retail media campaigns
• OnlyDust — OnlyDust is a contribute to the best StarkNet projects, and get paid in USDC or Tokens.
• Depot — The fastest place to build Docker images.

Portfolio highlights

• Captain Fresh — Captain Fresh is a freshwater fish and seafood supply chain platform. Captain Fresh is a B2B marketplace leveraging technology to deliver the fastest harvest-to-retail in the industry. The company focuses on aggregating the fragmented retail demand across the country and linking them to the small fishermen and farmers throughout the Indian coast.The company was founded in 2019 and is based in Bengaluru, India.
• Rainforest — Rainforest focuses on providing software platforms for payment processing. Rainforest is headquartered in Atlanta, United States.
• Aaritya Technologies — Because when you trade, we want you to trade like a pro.

Portfolio highlights

• Giza — Giza changes this by using zero-knowledge cryptography to bring model inferencing on-chain, unlocking a new depth for smart contract design.
• P0x Labs — P0x labs is the team behind Manta Network is a privacy-preserving technology operating on the Polkadot blockchain.
• Superstate — Superstate is developing the next generation of legal, blockchain-based financial solutions.

Portfolio highlights

• GAM3S.GG — Your home of web3 gaming offering game discovery, reviews, guides, news & quests for a full experience.
• Ola — Ola is a ZKVM-based, High-performance, Privacy-focused layer2 platform.
• Earn Network — Onboarding millions to make billions in DeFi economy

Portfolio highlights

• Frontrunner — Frontrunner is a decentralized sports prediction market where users can buy shares of sports propositions and trade them like they would stocks. Unlike traditional sportsbooks where users place a bet and wait, Frontrunner gives users full control over their portfolios, allowing them to dynamically buy and sell positions as the odds change. Byleveraging the power of free markets and the blockchain, we create fully transparent markets and liquid positions which fundamentally change the way that people invest in their sports knowledge and beliefs. The vision is to bring DeFi concepts like AMMs, margin trading, and perpetuals to a marketplace of sports derivatives, creating parity between financial and sports betting markets.
• MetaVersus World — MetaVersus combines gaming with Web3 to provide a hyper-realistic digital environment for brands to build in and for users to discover as MetaCitizens
• Spaceport Technologies — Accelerating the growth of the next digital economy

Portfolio highlights

• GRVT — Trade on the next-gen hybrid derivatives exchange 100% self-custody. 0% counterparty risk. Traditional finance meets the power of blockchain.
• BHR — Streamline home research and diligence. Real estate data from 30+ industry-leading providers. Powered by an AI real estate copilot. Available for every home in the US.
• Webb Protocol — Welcome to Webb, an ecosystem of infrastructures and applications designed to extend privacy to the blockchain space. We are committed to a future where privacy is accessible for all in the multi-chain world.

Portfolio highlights

• Instabase — Instabase combines the latest AI breakthroughs with industry expertise to create real business value for your business.
• Silo — Silo is a platform that automates the perishable supply chain. More time, more opportunity, less waste.
• Concordia — Concordia is a modular risk and collateral management protocol that unifies and enables multi-chain collateralization of digital assets.

Portfolio highlights

• Opolis — Opolis is next-gen Digital Employment Platform for Freelancers providing payroll, benefits and other services for independent workers and freelancers.
• GAST Clearwater — GAST Clearwater is a US-based, next-generation water treatment company with a mission to provide Water for Mankind one drop at a time. Operating in various industries and markets from Real Estate, Wastewater Treatment, Municipal Potable Water, and various others in particular focusing on the recovering and recycling of different waters in acentralized or decentralized way. The company also does artificial beaches, urban lagoons, wave pools, surf parks, aquatics to sewerage treatment, wastewater, and drinking water.
• Alef Aeronautics — Armada operates in a stealth mode

Portfolio highlights

• Aethir — Power Ultra-Low Latency Gaming & AI Experiences.
• SupraOracles — We're supercharging oracles to provide blockchains better, faster, accurate, and more secure off-chain data.
• Xixiang Ecological Chain Collection — Xixiang Ecological Chain Collection is a Web3 digital collection platform that includes encrypted art production, promotion, and collecting, as well as IP permission.

Portfolio highlights

• Spectarium — Spectarium is a remote-first, ambitious new company creating best-in-class cross-platform action RPGs. Spectarium designs at the cutting edge of gaming, always looking for new methods to improve players' gaming experiences.
• Socket — Socket, which acts as a meta-layer that connects all chains, enables unified, multichain applications with shared liquidity and state across chains.
• Maple Finance — Fast and easy borrowing for Corporate and Institutional borrowers

Portfolio highlights

• autone — Autone is a SaaS operational platform enabling retail & CPG businesses to make optimal decisions easily and quickly
• Genie — Genie is a productive web development framework in Julia. Build web applications, UIs, backends, integrate with databases, set up web services and APIs.
• Purpose Green — Purpose Green operates as a climatetech company.

Portfolio highlights

• DFlow — DFlow is the protocol powering the first decentralized order flow markets
• Ethena — Ethena provides derivative infrastructure in order to transform Ethereum into the first crypto-native yield bearing stablecoin.
• One Trading — Discover an unrivalled trading experience with One Trading. We believe regulation powers user experience, not breaks it. Crypto - But regulated. Buy crypto now, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, DOGE, Solana, Cardano and more.

Portfolio highlights

• Huma — Huma is an Income backed DeFi.
• M^ZERO Labs — M^ZERO Labs intends to create a decentralized network that will let large users securely connect resources to a decentralized infrastructure. MZERO strives to establish itself as the decentralized money middleware that enables on-chain interaction between actors of significant scale and sophistication.
• Superstate — Superstate is developing the next generation of legal, blockchain-based financial solutions.

Portfolio highlights

• Rep3 — Rep3 is a Web3 community management application. Rep3 uses gamification methods to assist lps encryption projects in managing communities, members, and contributions.
• Orb — A community-focused social app for people to connect, interact, and transact in their daily lives on web3 built with Lens Protocol.
• Lens Protocol — Lens Protocol is a composable and decentralized social graph, ready for you to build on so you can focus on creating a great experience, not scaling your users.

Portfolio highlights

• Payabli — Payment infrastructure for your software platform. Accept payments from customers and make payouts to vendors and contractors with our API's.
• Foro — We help your business connect, compare, and choose between top business lenders. Get started to see the best loan options for your business.
• Carry1st — Carry1st develops and publishes enriching mobile games and content apps for African consumers.