Haun Ventures Leads $5M Seed Round in DAO Governance Platform Agora
Cautious Approach During Crypto Downturn
When Haun Ventures launched in 2021 with $1.5 billion across two funds, the crypto market was thriving. However, the subsequent crash and the FTX collapse led the firm to adopt a more cautious approach, despite having significant dry powder. Many wondered when Haun Ventures would increase its investment pace.
Picking Up the Pace as Bitcoin Rebounds
As bitcoin prices have recovered to previous highs, Haun Ventures’ investment activity has surged. The firm has made 48 investments across its early-stage $500 million and $1 billion later-stage acceleration funds, including token positions.
Streamlining DAO Governance with Agora
Haun Ventures’ latest investment is a $5 million seed round in Agora, an app that simplifies voting and decision-making for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Sam Rosenblum, a partner and investment team lead at Haun Ventures, highlighted the lack of a user-friendly interface for DAO members to approve software upgrades and participate in governance as a significant obstacle.
Historically, if you wanted to participate in resource allocation of a protocol treasury, you had to do a bunch of on-chain actions yourself, which probably means you have hardware and software setup that most people don’t have.
Agora addresses this issue by providing an easy-to-use community and protocol governance solution, making DAO participation accessible to non-technical users. Rosenblum likened Agora to Coinbase, which simplified coin trading for the masses.
Experienced Founders and Adoption by Major Protocols
Founded in 2022 by Charlie Feng (co-founder of fintech Clearco), Yitong Zhang (Coinbase product designer), and Kent Fenwick (software engineer), Agora is already used by protocols such as Optimism, ENS, and Uniswap. These protocols are willing to pay for Agora as it helps lower the barrier to community participation.
Continued Investment into Next Year
While Rosenblum did not specify when Haun Ventures will finish deploying its current fund, he indicated that investing will continue into the next year as activity in the crypto world accelerates.
3 Comments
Haun Ventures jumping on the Bitcoin bandwagon is no surprise, given its skyrocketing value!
Seems like Haun Ventures is riding the Bitcoin rollercoaster straight to the bank!
Haun Ventures knows where the crypto gold is hidden, and they’re digging in the right spots!