Decentralized investing platform Syndicate is decentralizing its investor base.
Some 100 investors have pitched in a total of $800,000 in a funding round that includes some of the biggest names in crypto – Balaji Srinivasan, Jeremy Allaire, Meltem Demirors and dozens more. Earlier this year, the platform raised $1 million in a seed round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures.
“Syndicate’s community raise is an important first step in democratizing our own platform and making Syndicate community-owned,” co-founders Will Papper and Ian Lee wrote.
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The platform, which is still in private beta, aims to democratize investing by making it easier for people to spin up decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). DAOs are basically shared bank accounts on the blockchain with tools meant to facilitate group decision-making.
So far, Syndicate has launched six DAOs, including Audacity and the Komorebi Collective, which both provide venture capital to underrepresented founders in the crypto space.
Syndicate’s small but mighty approach to fundraising stands in stark contrast to the ongoing wave of institutional investment in decentralized finance (DeFi). It also speaks to the growing momentum of DAOs in the DeFi ecosystem.
DAO dogfooding
The community raise was done through a special-purpose DAO on Syndicate’s platform. Lee confirmed the investments were equity investments in Syndicate.
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Lee told CoinDesk in an interview that the round was capped at 100 investors who were invited to invest after being a part of the Syndicate community for months. Contributors to the fund included notable crypto investors, entrepreneurs, professors and even a WallStreetBets moderator. (Note: It also included former CoinDesk writer Joon Ian Wong and Nathaniel Whittemore, host of CoinDesk’s “The Breakdown” podcast.)
“Syndicate is such a cool project because it gets us closer to a world of truly decentralized finance,” Wong told CoinDesk via Telegram. “It’s unlocking new ways for people to back the projects they truly care about.”
Lee said Syndicate’s investors also include members of the organization’s Discord group that previously purchased non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to commemorate the launch of various Syndicate DAOs. Some of these NFTs were purchased for as little as $100, which Lee said was important to the company to ensure equitable access to investing in Syndicate.
“We believe that investing is really, really powerful. It shapes what gets built in the world, by whom, and for whom, and where. At the same time, existing investment structures and models reinforce, in our opinion, inequality,” Lee told CoinDesk, adding:
“To solve that, we need to democratize that investment capability. We’re going to do that in a progressive and responsible way by working with aligned investors and communities.”
Lee said Syndicate expects to begin rolling out its private beta in stages beginning in the next several weeks.
Here’s the full list of investors as provided by Syndicate:
Alana Podrx, CEO, Eve Wealth
Alex Masmej, CEO, Showtime
Alexis Gauba, Co-Founder, Opyn
Ameer Suhayb Carter, Mint Fund
Anastasia Andrianova, CEO, Akropolis
Andrew Steinwold, Managing Partner, Sfermion
Aya Kantorovich, FalconX
Baek Kim, Hashed
Balaji Srinivasan, ex Coinbase, ex Earn, ex a16z
Beryl Li, Co-Founder, Yield Guild
Blake West, Co-Founder, Goldfinch
Bo Shao, Co-Founder, Evolve
Bobby Ong, Co-Founder, CoinGecko
Brian Flynn, CEO, Rabbithole
Calvin Liu, Compound, Divergence
Carlos Gomes, Forefront, Mint Fund
Christy Choi, ex Binance
Colleen Sullivan, CEO, CMT Digital
Cooper Turley, Audius, Variant
Courtney Chow, Battery, ex IDEO CoLab
Cuy Sheffield, Visa
Dave Kim, Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Derek Hsue, Co-Founder, Reverie
Do Kwon, Founder, Terra
Driss
Erik Syvertsen, GC, AngelList
Erikan Obotetukudo, Founder, Audacity
Gabby Dizon, Co-Founder, Yield Guild
George Lambeth, Divergence, Balancer
Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder, NEAR
Jacob Horne, Founder, Zora
Jake Chervinsky, GC, Compound, Variant
James Foley, Co-Founder, Cowri
James Young, CEO, Abridged, Collab.Land
Jason Choi, Spartan Group, Blockcrunch
Jazear Brooks, Co-Founder, Sifchain
Jean-Cedric
Jeff Garzik, Co-Founder, Vesper
Jeff Morris Jr., Chapter One, ex Tinder
Jeremy Allaire, CEO, Circle
Jess Sloss, SeedClub
Joon Ian Wong, ex CoinDesk
Joris Delanoue, Co-Founder, Fairmint
Joyce Yang, Founder, Global Coin Ventures
Julia Lipton, Founder, Awesome People Ventures
Justin Ridgely, BlockFi
Justine Humenansky, Playground, Fiat Lux DAO
Kaito, Bspeak!
Kazufumi
Kenny White, Founder, Cowri
Kevin Chou, Founder, Rally, Forte, Kabam, Gen.G
Kevin Nielsen, CEO, Boardroom
“Fully Allocated”, Default
Kieran Warwick, Founder, Illuvium
Kinsa Durst, Republic
Kristie Huang, Komorebi, she256
Larry Sukernik, Co-Founder, Reverie
Leighton Cusack, Co-Founder, PoolTogether, PleasrDAO
Li Jin, Founder, Atelier Ventures
Luis Cuende, Co-Founder, Aragon
Mark Roszak, Founder, 1121 Law
Matthew Roszak, Co-Founder, Vesper
Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer, CoinShares
Micah Johnson, Creator, Aku
Mike Sall, CEO, Goldfinch
Mike Zajko, CoinList, Free Company
Mildred Idada, Founder, Open Web Collective
Min Teo, Ethereal Ventures, ConsenSys Mesh
Morgan Beller, NFX, ex Libra, ex a16z
Nathalie McGrath, ex Coinbase
Nathan McCauley, CEO, Anchorage
Nathaniel Whittemore
Nitya Subramanian, Celo
Noah Jessop, Co-Founder, Nine Realms
Patrick Chang, Founder, Dispersion
Prabhakar Reddy, Co-Founder, FalconX, ex Accel
Rahul Vohra, CEO, Superhuman
Raj Gokal, COO, Solana
Ramon Recuero, Founder, Babylon
Regan Bozman, Dove Mountain Partners, ex-Coinlist
Rene Reinsberg, Celo
Robbie Bent, Ethereum Foundation
Ryan Selkis, CEO, Messari
Sasha (Aliaksandr) Hudzilin, NEAR
Scott Moore, Co-Founder, Gitcoin
Sebastian Delgado, Co-Founder, Fei
Sina Habibian, Ethereum Foundation
Sriram Krishnan, Advisor, Calm, ex Tinder, ex Spotify
Stani Kulechov, CEO, Aave
Steve Blank, Professor, Stanford University
Steve Weinstein, Professor, Stanford University
Thibauld Favre, CEO, Fairmint
Todd Goldberg
Tom Bedecarre, Stanford University, ex AKQA
Tyler Ward, Co-Founder, Barnbridge
Vanessa Slavich, Celo
wsbmod, Wall Street Bets
Xochitl Cazador, Celo, she256
Zack Seward contributed reporting.
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