Venture DAO opens up access to early-stage crypto projects

A venture DAO is taking on the heavyweights of the blockchain VC world with a community-driven venture capital protocol and accelerator.

Stacker Ventures claims that the current landscape is often dominated by exclusive deals that see VCs get significantly greater value than mainstream investors.

As well as delivering capital to early-stage projects, the platform is also going to provide the manpower and skills that startups need to succeed through its involved DAO participants.

Stacker Ventures is backed by a line-up of renowned crypto venture capital firms — including Senary Blockchain Ventures, Supernova Fund and Fourth Revolution Capital — who are committed to helping explore new on-chain alternatives to venture funding.

Fund 1 has now launched, and anyone with an Ethereum wallet can get involved. It is accepting applications for funding from promising DeFi and Web 3.0 projects. To be eligible, they must have an ERC-20 token — or plan to launch one in the near future. Contributions to Fund 1 are open until May 1 or a cap of $5 million in hard commitments has been reached — whichever comes sooner.

A place for early adopters

Setting out why its offering is needed, Stacker Ventures points to Compound Finance. The likes of Coinbase Ventures and a16z were able to back the project when it was valued at between $10 million and $90 million, but mainstream investors could only gain exposure at a valuation of $400 million.

Stacker Ventures wants the projects it supports to have more than capital — opening up access to a “passionate community of testers, vocal supporters, and day one users committed to their long-term success.”

The project says there’s a place for everyone in their DAO — whether their passion is investment analysis, beta testing cool products, or creating memes and chatting to like-minded enthusiasts on Discord.

Fund 1 details emerge

Among the first projects to star in Fund 1 is BeTheHouse, an innovative cryptocurrency casino. The brand is part of the BET Gaming Network, a coalition of crypto companies that merge iGaming with some of the recent innovations seen in the DeFi sector.

At the beating heart of Stacker Ventures is the STACK token, which plays an essential role in the governance of the DAO and the funds it launches. It can also be used for yield farming and liquidity mining. It is an ERC-20 token that is available on Uniswap.

Stacker Ventures says that the advent of blockchain has ushered in an age of exploration and opportunity — enabling organizational and capital structures to be reimagined in inventive ways.

A recent blog post added: “However, for the most part, not much has changed when it comes to how early stage blockchain projects are funded. Venture funding remains limited to high net worth individuals and VC firms, who typically invest behind closed doors at a fraction of the price once tokens finally hit the public.‌”

In time, Stacker Ventures’ goal is to become the world’s largest community of investors and early adopters — a group who have a shared goal of supporting and accelerating the most promising technological innovations.

Fund 1 is set to deliver fully open access, and will have a lifespan of one year. Its main goal is to gain exposure to projects that show potential for high growth early before ultimately dissolving and distributing assets after 12 months.

Crucially, participants in the fund retain ultimate control through the use of smart contracts — giving them the ability to veto decisions, pause the fund, or even dissolve it early. They can also sell their ownership tokens via Uniswap.