Strobe Ventures: Content

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Our insights on consumers, institutions, apps, agents, and more.

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Investing in TYB

Commerce in the 2010s was marked by the growth of the DTC darlings such as Allbirds, Warby Parker, Casper, and more. What we learned from that era was the brands that prevailed were those with hyper-strong, almost fanatical, communities that helped supercharge the brand’s growth. Think Glossier and Barry's - brands that sell more than products. They build movements by leveraging the power of their community. At Strobe, we believe community-owned and co-created brands are the future, especiall...

Exclusive: Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney raises $11 million for her second startup

Outdoor Voices founder Ty Haney launched her second startup, Try Your Best (or TYB), more than three years ago. It was peak Web3, a space that Haney became highly interested in after she left the athletic apparel retailer that, in some ways, defined 2010s startups. Today, Haney is still building TYB, with 38 employees—and it’s outlasted the rise and fall of blockchain/crypto/NFT-mania. The platform is intended to be a layer of loyalty infrastructure for consumer brands, what Haney calls “community commerce.” Two hundred brands use the platform, as do 2 million users—mostly Gen Z women.

Proof of Talk 2025

Proof of Talk redefines Web3 conferences by making networking the core focus, fostering groundbreaking collaborations. After two successful editions, Proof of Talk returns to Paris, creating an unparalleled platform for conversations, partnerships, and innovations by bringing together the best minds in the industry for the ‍#1 Networking Event in Web3.

Announcing the Stablecoin Practitioner’s Guide

Rebank is excited to release Stablecoins: The Practitioner’s Guide, a comprehensive report written by and for the people building the future of stablecoin infrastructure. This is not another hype-filled whitepaper or a 30,000-foot VC memo. This is a granular, practical, and sharply observed breakdown of what stablecoins really are — and where they’re going.

Maple closes first tranche of Bitcoin-backed financing from Cantor to expand its institutional crypto credit

Maple, the leading on-chain asset manager, today announced it has expanded its capital strategy with the closing of its first tranche of a Bitcoin-backed financing facility from Cantor, a premier global investment bank. This transaction marks a major milestone in institutional digital asset adoption, signaling the next phase of capital formation between traditional and decentralized markets.

Angels to Allocators

Winnie Lau – Investing $200M into Consume Breakouts at Strobe – ep 21

Andrew Steinwold chats with Winnie Lau about the future of consumer products. They talk about: spinning out from BlockTower, meme coins as capital formation, AI companions & tokenized commerce, mini-apps on Farcaster, equity vs tokens, and being "chronically online".

The Alpha is Onchain

Nowadays, new assets launch every minute, with some reaching billion dollar valuations before ever appearing on CeFi venues. Earlier this year, we saw $TRUMP reach a market cap of $15B and trade $85.5B in volume before Coinbase even listed the token. With the rise of derivative exchanges and novel yield products on new chains, even the most sophisticated traders struggle to capture maximum value, effectively manage positions, and efficiently move assets across multiple protocols.

Investing in Chronicle

There are a few holy grails when it comes to investing in crypto infrastructure. There is no shortage of attempts to build and raise for this opportunity set, though they’re almost always obviously unviable from the start. The deck hits your desk and it is whisked away after a brief scan at best. On-chain prime brokerage, a scalable new-paradigm stablecoin and oracles are a few of crypto's holy grails.

Chronicle Raises $12 Million in Seed Funding

Chronicle, the first Oracle on Ethereum and leading data infrastructure provider for tokenized assets, today announced it raised $12 million in Seed funding, in a round led by Strobe Ventures (formerly BlockTower Venture Capital).

Morpho Blue and how it enables our vision for DeFi lending

Today, we published the whitepaper and released the code of Morpho Blue, a new lending protocol.

October 10, 2023

Architect Financial Technologies Launches US-regulated Brokerage for Futures and Options with CFTC License, Expands Global Derivatives Offering

Architect Financial Technologies, Inc. ("Architect" or "the Company") today announced its expansion into derivatives brokerage services after its subsidiary, Architect Financial Derivatives, LLC, received regulatory approval from the NFA to operate as an Independent Introducing Broker in CFTC-regulated derivatives. The Company's new brokerage will enable clients to trade the full range of listed derivatives products – futures, index options, futures options, trade-at-settlement futures, future spreads, and event contracts – on CFTC-registered exchanges. Architect will partner with US Futures Commission Merchants including Wedbush Securities, StoneX Financial Inc., and Straits Financial to provide related clearing services.

September 21, 2023

It's time to talk about DeFi's risk management problems.

DeFi is still nascent and developing, with many of its components still to be refined in the coming years. Yet, if we are being honest with ourselves, there are also parts of the stack we should spend more time challenging.

August 16, 2023

Sari-Sari Stores: Community Retail Gems of the Philippines

At Jia, we’re all about empowering hardworking entrepreneurs around the world to realize their business ambitions. This mission has introduced us to countless communities of ambitious, savvy individuals; sari-sari stores in the Philippines especially embody this ‘negosyante’ (business-minded) ambition.

August 12, 2023

Jia drives small business growth in the Philippines with Sarisuki partnership

This article is part of a series spotlighting local partners providing valuable services in their communities, powered partly by Jia’s financing.

August 12, 2023

5 keys for crypto to unlock financial prosperity in emerging markets: Reflections from EthCC

The Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Paris last month brought together thought leaders and innovators driving cryptocurrency toward mass adoption. Our intern John Böllhoff was in the middle of the action, gaining firsthand insights on the future of crypto in emerging markets. Here are his reflections on the conference as he wraps up his summer internship with us.

August 12, 2023