By Diogo Mónica

Today, I’m happy to announce that we have led a seed investment in Finisterra Labs, the makers of Baselight.

The amount of data on the internet continues to explode, but the need for high-quality, structured data continues to be a critical bottleneck for humans and AI models alike. In 2010, the world generated 2 zettabytes of data. By 2024, this figure had increased 74-fold to 149 zettabytes, with data analytics driving an estimated $300B in worldwide revenue. This exponential growth is expected to continue, with projections indicating that the world will generate almost 400 zettabytes of data by 2028. 

For a long time, the building blocks necessary for a platform to aggregate and incentivize the upkeep of high-quality data haven’t existed. But that’s changed.

Finisterra Labs has created Baselight, a decentralized data marketplace and analytics platform for high-quality structured data, designed to break down data silos, making it easier and more cost-effective to obtain and use such data. You can think about this as an open-source Wikipedia for structured data (rather than encyclopedic knowledge) where those who contribute data are rewarded for their contributions. We think Finisterra’s product is uniquely possible through decentralized, blockchain technology.

Right now, AI companies, crypto companies, traders and developers of all types face a common problem: they need to scrape the same data across the internet, clean it up, and augment it before they can make use of it. This ETL (extract-transform-load) process is a very common pattern for any company that relies on external data collection. One interesting side effect of ETL processes is that you have many different organizations cleaning, augmenting, and processing the same data for one-time use.

Baselight allows any company that has created valuable structured data to put it for sale in a marketplace. Conversely, it allows any company wishing to access high-quality structured data to avoid running resource-intensive ETL processes, replacing this with the ability to simply query the final result. Baselight leverages cryptography in a couple of different ways. First, crypto economics can incentivize contribution and upkeep of high-quality data, particularly niche data sets that may be more cumbersome to collect and maintain. Second, stablecoins can be used as a low-friction, low-cost, payment mechanism. 

We believe the Finisterra team, based in Europe, was founded by a set of three individuals, with deep experience in distributed systems, data infrastructure, cryptography, and blockchain technology. The founders have worked on projects like Quorum, Dune, and Filecoin, which are adjacent to the goal they are trying to accomplish. The CEO, Henrique, is a PhD in distributed systems who also has practical experience building large-scale systems at companies like Google and JPMorgan. 

We’re delighted to support Henrique Moniz, Jorge M. Soares, and Alfonso de la Rocha as they build this critical infrastructure to make sense of the world’s data.

If you’re interested in seeing what it looks like, check out Baselight.ai and feel free to ping me for an alpha invite!

By Diogo Mónica

Today, I'm thrilled to announce we’re leading the Series B for BVNK. Joining us in this round are Coinbase, Tiger Global, and many other institutional and angel investors. We believe stablecoins have emerged as one of the most impactful innovations in financial rails of the past few decades, and BVNK is a global leader in stablecoin payment infrastructure.

With the stablecoin market now processing $25.1 trillion annually, we believe their momentum to be undeniable. Legacy systems like SWIFT and SEPA, built decades ago, no longer seem sufficient to meet the demands of a fast-moving, interconnected global economy. Meanwhile, stablecoins offer a stepwise change in speed, transparency, and cost efficiency.

BVNK is not just participating in this transformation—it’s helping to lead the way.

The promise of crypto has long been to build faster, fairer, and more inclusive financial systems. BVNK is creating infrastructure that bridges the gap between fiat and stablecoin ecosystems, thereby enabling  businesses like Deel, Rapyd, and Trust Payments, to send, receive, and settle payments seamlessly, regardless of currency or geography.

We’re thrilled to partner with Jesse Hemson-Struthers, Donald Jackson, Chris Harmse, and the entire BVNK team as they continue to expand their global footprint, bringing internet-speed payments to businesses worldwide. This team has been building for over five years, through multiple crypto cycles, and brings real business building skills to this challenge. Their growth has been commensurate with their skills, and we’re excited to help them tackle new markets.

We’re just at the beginning of this new payment era, and BVNK will be a key player in this next chapter, working to redefine how money moves globally. Sounds interesting? Join in on the fun.

By Diogo Mónica

Today, I'm thrilled to announce my first investment at Haun Ventures: leading the Series A for Chaos Labs. This round sees participation from PayPal Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners (LSVP), Fidelity's F-Prime Capital, and Slow Ventures, as well as prominent tech executives such as OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil and Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov. This investment underscores our commitment to backing transformative technologies in the blockchain risk management space.

Onchain Finance, encompassing DeFi and new institutional entrants, has shown remarkable resilience during high volatility periods, in large part due to critical risk parameter choices by protocols. Chaos Labs' risk platform underpins some of the largest crypto protocols, like Aave, helping to secure managed assets during turbulent times.

Despite these achievements, three key challenges impede DeFi protocol maturity:

1. Lack of actionable onchain risk information
2. Low frequency of onchain risk data updates
3. Inefficient processes for updating smart contract parameters

These shortcomings result in static onchain applications with stale risk configurations. Consequently, applications are reactive at best, compensating for lack of real-time updates with heightened fees and security buffers. This leads to suboptimal risk management and reduced capital efficiency.

Chaos Labs' Risk Oracles are designed to address these challenges, delivering high-granularity, real-time risk parameters onchain. By merging real-time observability, contextual market data, and actionable risk parameter updates, these oracles hold the potential to significantly reduce the risk of losses that have plagued the industry. 

We believe that the future of Onchain Finance is real-time, and that Chaos Labs is uniquely positioned to realize this vision. Already integrated among some of the world's largest crypto protocols across verticals such as borrow/lend, derivatives, restaking, and stablecoins, Chaos Labs is poised to transform onchain risk management.

Leading their Series A aligns with our vision for a more secure and robust onchain ecosystem, and I couldn’t be more excited to work closely with Omer and the team on bringing his vision to life. His dedication and expertise are pivotal in driving Chaos Labs forward and in turn, propelling the maturation of the Onchain Finance industry. 

If you are passionate about shaping the onchain future, and are excited about the work Chaos Labs is doing, consider joining their team. Check out their open roles here: Chaos Labs Careers.

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