Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF), a Singapore-based Venture Capital Fund that focuses on early-stage Web3 and blockchain startups globally has invested in Magna, a token management platform which raised a $15M seed round at a $70 million valuation led by venture capital firms Tiger Global and Tusk Venture Partners. Founded by CEO Bruno Faviero and CTO Arun Kirubarajan, Magna will use the funding to further expand the platform’s token management features and functionalities, and further expand the team.
Other participants in the round included Shima Capital, Circle Ventures, Solana Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Avalanche Labs, Alchemy Ventures and Galaxy Digital. Individual investors included ex-Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan, Messari’s Ryan Selkis and Steve Aoki.
Magna is building token distribution software that streamlines and automates the process for protocols, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and crypto funds to distribute and manage tokens – a process that has so far lacked automation and has been prone to error.
“Crypto Founders want their stakeholders to get their tokens on-time, correctly, and in a compliant way,” said Faviero, CEO of Magna. “We started Magna to make it easier to start and scale crypto companies, and this is one less thing founders have to worry about.”
According to Faviero, there is a huge lack of basic infrastructure for Web3 projects compared to the tools available for Web2. In Web3, tokens have become the new unit of ownership, and are transacted via blockchains and wallet addresses. The need for sophisticated, crypto-native tooling becomes clear with projects frequently using tokens to conduct airdrops, participate in governance and distribute as payment to investors.
Tobias Bauer, Principal of Blockchain Founders Fund said, “Founders and investors of decentralized applications have long struggled with the process surrounding token issuance which is still highly manual and time-consuming. Bruno and his team at Magna are building a platform that will expedite token management for founders and investors, thus bringing about much-needed efficiency in the Web3 space.”
