Share this article

Syndicate, an ‘AngelList for DeFi,’ Raises $1M Seed Round Led by IDEO CoLab Ventures

Still in private beta, the project intends to create a social graph for investors, developers and founders for the creative economy.

Updated May 9, 2023, 3:17 a.m. Published Mar 17, 2021, 12:00 p.m.
Network

Decentralized investing protocol Syndicate has raised $1 million in a seed round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures to decentralize crypto investing from the ground up, according to a blog post shared with CoinDesk.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Although still in private beta, Syndicate co-founder’s Will Papper and Ian Lee described Syndicate as a social graph for the rapidly decentralizing investment economy. Both Papper and Lee were employed at IDEO prior to Syndicate.

“We have a strong hypothesis that the next frontier of decentralized finance and crypto is social networks,” Lee said in an interview with CoinDesk. “The only thing that can't be forked is the community, and we take that to the next level with the only thing that can't be forked," which is "the social network.”

Syndicate is already connecting aspiring founders and investors, such as for non-fungible token (NFT) projects, according to Papper. The protocol enables founders to raise funds and conduct on-chain governance such as airdropping tokens, he said.

The team will use the funds for hiring more engineers as well as launching the protocol in the coming weeks.

See also: Crypto Has Another Unicorn as Bitpanda Raises $170M at $1.2B Valuation

The round was joined by Electric Capital, Delphi Ventures, CoinFund, Robot Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, DeFi Alliance and Nascent plus 18 individual investors.

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

GP Basic Image

What to know:

  • As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
  • GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
  • Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

More For You

VanEck's new Avalanche ETF filing to include staking rewards for AVAX investors

(VanEck)

The fund will use Coinbase Crypto Services as its initial staking provider and pay a 4% service fee, with rewards accruing to the fund and reflected in its net asset value.

What to know:

  • VanEck has updated its filing for an Avalanche ETF, VAVX, to include staking rewards, aiming to generate income for investors by staking up to 70% of its AVAX holdings.
  • The fund will use Coinbase Crypto Services as its initial staking provider and pay a 4% service fee, with rewards accruing to the fund and reflected in its net asset value.
  • If approved, the fund will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker VAVX, tracking AVAX's price via a custom index, and will be custodied with regulated providers, including Anchorage Digital and Coinbase Custody.