Insights into Future Narratives and Directions from 16 New Web3 Startups Joining Alliance DAO
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Insights into Future Narratives and Directions from 16 New Web3 Startups Joining Alliance DAO
The latest batch of startups is a good microcosm of the industry's overall development.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: Jacquelyn Melinek
Compiled by: TechFlow
The cryptocurrency industry continues to face numerous challenges, yet it still attracts a steady influx of startups and founders.
Alliance DAO, a Web3 accelerator and builder community, recently held its latest cohort demo day—known as ALL10—on Wednesday.
Twice a year, Alliance DAO runs a three-month program for Web3 founders. During the event, Qiao Wang, a core contributor at Alliance DAO, said this cohort received a record 1,692 applications—an increase of 77.5% from the previous round—but only 16 startups were selected and have now graduated from the program.
According to Wang, the latest batch of startups is a good reflection of broader industry trends. Many teams are working on improving popular crypto subfields such as the Bitcoin network, app-specific chains, rollups-as-a-service, zero-knowledge proofs, proof-of-physical-work, and real-time blockchain data.
“The intersection of artificial intelligence and crypto is another major theme,” said Wang, adding that AI has the potential to fundamentally transform crypto, on-chain analytics, and off-chain computation.
Most of the startups in this cohort are built on the Ethereum ecosystem, while others focus on EVM-compatible chains like Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Avalanche. A few are also building on Solana, Filecoin, Chainlink, Sui, and Bitcoin.
“The second year of a bear market is the most painful part of the cycle. This happened in 2019, in 2015, and again this year in 2023,” said Wang. “It’s also the phase of the cycle where resources—like capital and talent—are scarce. But what we’ve learned from working with over 100 startups is that having a large team or millions in venture funding isn’t a prerequisite for achieving great things.”
Mentors for the ALL10 cohort included Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, President of Polygon Labs Ryan Wyatt, Filecoin founder and CEO Juan Benet, Ava Labs co-founder Kevin Sekniqi, Zerion co-founder and CEO Evgeny Yurtaev, 0x co-CEO Amir Bandeali, and Ribbon Finance co-founder Julian Koh.
Below are introductions to these 16 startups:
Company Name: Teablocks
Business Focus: ChatGPT for blockchain data
Founders: Tariq Patanam, Ammar Khan
Stage: Seed
Overview: Teablocks is building a platform that brings ChatGPT-like capabilities to blockchain data. The platform requires no technical expertise and allows users to ask precise questions and easily retrieve information, according to co-founder and CTO Ammar Khan. It leverages blockchain data and customized AI agents to convert raw data into "more readable formats." Teablocks already has over 300 companies on its waitlist and is currently raising seed funding.
Company Name: Xverse
Business Focus: Bitcoin wallet for Web3
Founders: Ken Liao
Stage: Seed
Overview: Xverse is a Bitcoin-focused crypto wallet designed for Web3. Founder and CEO Ken Liao said it enables self-custody and offers a MetaMask-like experience for DeFi, NFTs, and more. Available on Android and iOS, and as a Chrome extension on desktop, Xverse has already attracted over 130,000 users. It integrates with crypto projects and apps such as Ordinals Market, Magic Eden, and Gamma. The wallet is raising a $4 million seed round, with $2.5 million already committed.
Company Name: Snapchain
Business Focus: ZK-rollup-as-a-service
Founders: Zidong Zhang, Morgan Howell
Stage: Seed
Overview: Snapchain is a zero-knowledge rollup-as-a-service (ZK-rollup-as-a-service) platform for developers. While ZK rollups reduce transaction costs, deploying and managing chains involves a “steep learning curve and ongoing maintenance costs,” said co-founder Morgan Howell. The startup helps developers configure, create, and manage ZK rollups through its no-code console. Snapchain is currently raising seed funding.
Company Name: Glow
Business Focus: Proof-of-Physical-Work for carbon credits
Founders: David Vorick
Stage: Seed
Overview: Glow is building a proof-of-physical-work (PoPW) system for carbon credits. Founder David Vorick explained: “We use tokens to incentivize the construction of solar panels to generate carbon credits and displace dirty energy from the grid.” Approximately 9 million Glow tokens will be distributed annually to solar panel operators in proportion to the carbon credits they generate, encouraging further solar deployment. Carbon credits will be distributed as yield to token holders. The protocol is set to launch in August and is currently raising seed funding.
Company Name: Modulus Labs
Business Focus: Trustless AI via zero-knowledge proofs
Founders: Daniel Shorr, Ryan Cao, Nick Cosby
Stage: Seed
Overview: Modulus Labs is building trustless AI powered by zero-knowledge proofs to make the technology cheaper and more accessible for crypto protocols. Co-founder and CEO Daniel Shorr noted that bringing AI on-chain currently requires full centralization, which limits how decentralized protocols like Uniswap can interact with the technology due to high costs. The startup’s system offers affordable, blockchain-secured AI services for less than one cent per call. Existing clients include WorldCoin. The company is currently raising seed funding.
Company Name: AwesomeQA
Business Focus: AI-powered community management for Web3
Founders: Alexander Abstreiter, Korbinian Abstreiter
Stage: Seed
Overview: AwesomeQA is building an AI-powered community management service for Web3, offering automated support tools across platforms like Discord and Telegram. Its AI model pulls knowledge from multiple sources—including chat logs, product documentation, and future on-chain data—to answer user queries. Co-founder and CEO Alexander Abstreiter said their AI achieves 94% accuracy and currently serves 47 clients, including Aave, Dune Analytics, and Scroll. The team recently closed its seed round but remains open to strategic investors.
Company Name: Primodium
Business Focus: On-chain composable games
Founders: Morris Hsieh, Emerson Hsieh
Stage: Seed
Overview: Primodium is building a fully blockchain-based, open-source, and composable game. Co-founder and CEO Morris Hsieh said: “The goal of the game is to gain map control, research technologies, and expand your factory.” Launched just four days ago, the game already has over 500 users and 10,000 transactions. Some players have created new content, bots, and entirely new game modes. Primodium is currently raising seed funding.
Company Name: Fountain
Business Focus: Wallet management for teams
Founders: Morgan Lai
Stage: Seed
Overview: Fountain is building a “Web3 version of Okta,” said founder and CEO Morgan Lai. The platform consolidates enterprise custody accounts, exchanges, wallets, and dApps into a single management interface. “Admins can delegate different applications to employees without sharing private keys,” Lai explained. Fountain also provides compliance-ready audit trails. The startup is seeking seed funding.
Company Name: Itos
Business Focus: Perpetual synthetic asset options
Founders: Terence An, Brian Broeking
Stage: Seed
Overview: Itos is developing American-style perpetual synthetic asset options with features like diversity, liquidity, and cross-margining. “Existing protocols only consider one of these elements,” said co-founder and CEO Terence An. He added that American-style options with cross-margining are completely missing in DeFi. The platform plans to launch its automated market maker in Q3 2023 and a suite of structured products in Q4. It is raising seed funding and looking for potential liquidity partners.
Company Name: Dataleap
Business Focus: Assistant for user research
Founders: Jan Damm, Jan Ruettinger
Stage: Seed
Overview: Dataleap is creating a ChatGPT-like companion and assistant for user research and product teams. Co-founder and CEO Jan Damm said: “We aggregate every touchpoint you have with customers, whether on Zoom, Slack, or other platforms.” The assistant delivers standardized summaries and feedback, linked back to original sources. Design partners include Personio and Forto. Dataleap is currently seeking seed funding.
Company Name: Caldera
Business Focus: No-code customizable app chains
Founders: Matthew Katz, Parker Jou
Stage: Seed
Overview: Caldera is a no-code Web3 infrastructure platform that helps developers build customizable, application-specific chains. The startup previously raised $9 million across two rounds. It aims to simplify the process of launching app-specific blockchains, enabling builders to deploy Layer 2 chains on Ethereum in minutes. Co-founder and CEO Matthew Katz said its public testnet has attracted over 250,000 unique wallets and 650,000 transactions. The company is now seeking strategic investors.
Company Name: Wallchain
Business Focus: Returning MEV to end users
Founders: Maksym Bevza, Yurii Kyparus
Stage: Seed
Overview: Wallchain is a Web3 anti-bot solution that returns MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) to users on decentralized exchanges. It protects transactions and redirects funds that would otherwise go to bots back to users. According to its website, it is the most widely used MEV protection tool on BNB and Polygon blockchains. Co-founder and CEO Yurii Kyparus said it is the default execution method on Quickswap, BabyDoge, and ApeSwap, having already protected over $1.5 billion in transactions monthly. The startup has previously raised seed funding but remains open to strategic investors.
Company Name: Singularity
Business Focus: Payment services for app chains
Founders: Aditya Gupta, Sumit Vohra
Stage: Seed
Overview: Singularity provides payment services for app chains, making it easier for users to transfer funds within Web3. Co-founder and CEO Aditya Gupta said: “We let users pay using any method they prefer—fiat or tokens—and deposit funds directly into their app chain wallets.” The startup operates on Oasys and Polygon and is collaborating with three design partners on the Oasys chain. The company is seeking to complete its seed round.
Company Name: Hashmail
Business Focus: Inbox for Web3
Founders: Bharat Kumar Ramesh, Swapnika Nag
Stage: Seed
Overview: Hashmail is a Web3 inbox alternative designed to support dApps. The platform is a full-channel, Web3-native, AI-powered solution that enables customer support integration across app frontends and community channels in under 10 minutes. Co-founder and CEO Swapnika Nag said since its February launch, the dashboard has delivered over 500,000 messages for 50,000 wallets across 30 dApps including Unstoppable Domains, OKX Chain, and Superdao. The startup previously raised $1.1 million and is now seeking additional seed funding.
Company Name: Defined
Business Focus: Enriched real-time blockchain data
Founders: Mike Rowe, Braden Simpson, Nathan Lambert, Matt Fikowski, Derek Binnersley
Stage: Series A
Overview: Defined provides real-time blockchain data for businesses to index and decode transaction queries. It collects data on over 1.5 million tokens and 420 million NFTs across 45 networks, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, and Polygon. Co-founder and CEO Mike Rowe said Defined has over 300,000 monthly active users and powers platforms like TradingView, 0x, and sudoswap. The company is currently raising its next funding round.
Company Name: Pocket Universe (by Refract Inc.)
Business Focus: Web3 fraud prevention
Founders: Nishan Samarasinghe, Justin Phu
Stage: Seed
Overview: Pocket Universe is a free Web3 anti-fraud browser extension developed by Refract, designed to protect users from phishing scams and crypto wallet theft. The extension shows users transaction details before they sign, helping them understand what they’re approving and keep their assets secure. It cannot access users’ wallets, seed phrases, or private keys—meaning users must still log into their own wallets to move funds. According to co-founder and CEO Justin Phu, the extension already has over 60,000 weekly active users. It’s compatible with Metamask, Coinbase, and similar “wallets” like XDEFI or Frame. The company is raising seed funding and has secured $1.25 million in commitments.
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