My next steps with LiquidX

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be joining LiquidX as co-founder, heading the product team and working on the new companies we will build.

LiquidX is an application layer focused venture studio. We plan to build 5–6 new companies 2 ways (1) We (mostly) build them on our own (2) We (sometimes) build them in partnership with good founders, taking on tech and product roles in the founding team.

A recap:

After working for Grab in the early days and building in payments and lending, I joined venture to help invest in the best. 5 years ago I started Saison Capital, a seed stage fintech fund focused on emerging markets in Asia. We started with 50M of committed capital and within 2 years had > 100M to be deployed. In 2022 we were ranked by CB insights as one of the top 5 fintech CVCs globally by quality of investments.

I’m grateful to the trust given to me by both our parent company, Credit Saison, and the team members that joined me along the way. We turned a scrappy, under-resourced and unheard of new entrant into a proper institution with a good track record and brand regionally.

I’m also grateful for the amazing founders I’ve had the privilege of working with. We’ve backed almost 50 founder teams in the last 5 years and from them I’ve learned so much from them about the grit and determination involved in building businesses.

I’m back to both building LiquidX and working with great operators again.

Looking ahead:

I’ve been thinking alot about where the world is headed and what I would like to contribute to. There are a few things I’m convicted by:

1. The application layer will determine if crypto makes it
   We have over indexed on infrastructure given how nascent the space is. Moving forward, more applications that showcase the utility of blockchain as a technology will be what brings non-speculative users on-chain.
2. We are at an important point in the path dependency for decentralisation
   I believe that blockchain as a technology is here to stay, and education of the consumer around self-custody is important. If consumers accept private blockchains, which is the least resistance path for most large businesses, then we will end up with blockchain adoption without decentralisation and self-custody.
3. The world needs durable digital assets
   I believe that future generations will spend more time in digital than physical spaces. Hence, digital assets must transition from ephemeral to durable. This more closely mimics physical ownership.

These are the values that we will build with at LiquidX and if we contribute to shaping the world and society this way, I would be proud. I am also proud to be working with my co-founders Giulio and Kendrick, and CTO Junhao, who scaled at multiple companies such as Zalora, Spartan and Xfers.

As of now, we have 3 companies we’re building:

1. A gaming-first IP studio, Pixelmon
2. An anime publishing and licensing company, Kasagi Labo
3. A company that bridges on-chain and real world legal governance, Gvrn (“Govern”)

We are grateful to have a number of investors such as Hashed, CMT, Superscrypt and Saison Capital invested into the companies we have built.

The Ask

Are you interested in joining a fast-growing ecosystem of folks building an ecosystem of companies across culture, DeFi, etc? We’re hiring for both technical and non-technical folks across a range of roles here.

If you’re an experienced builder passionate about web3, looking to build something long lasting but don’t fit any of these roles in particular — reach out to me on Twitter and let’s connect. You might be one of the founders we end up building with!

By the Way

I will be continuing to invest in early stage startups in a personal capacity. If you are a founder in fintech, DeFi, gaming and media — those are sectors I understand well, bridging East and West in my time investing in the US media industry and building in Asia and I would love to connect.