Oddiyana Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Oddiyana Ventures is a crypto-native, early-stage investment firm founded in Seoul, South Korea in May 2021. The firm bridges Eastern and Western blockchain markets, funding innovation in the decentralization movement broadly: DeFi, GameFi, AI, SocialFi, protocols, NFTs, BRC-20, RWA/DePIN, and increasingly, publicly listed digital asset treasury (DAT) vehicles. Beyond capital, Oddiyana positions itself as an operational partner, offering growth strategy, market exposure across Eastern and Western exchanges/launchpads, strategic advisory, legal/regulatory compliance support for blockchain entities, and technical guidance on DeFi, NFTs, and Layer 2 infrastructure.
Stage Focus
Oddiyana invests predominantly at Pre-Seed and Seed, with occasional Series A follow-on. Third-party deal trackers (Tracxn) show 16 Seed-stage investments at an average round size of approximately $2.26M, plus at least one Series A. The homepage claims 200+ projects invested and 92 tracked by Tracxn as of mid-2024, suggesting a high-velocity, portfolio-construction approach typical of crypto-native funds.
Check Size
Specific check sizes are not publicly disclosed. Based on average Seed round sizes in third-party trackers (~$2.26M total round, Oddiyana typically one of several participants), individual checks are likely in the low-to-mid six figures for early rounds, though the firm has also participated in large institutional PIPE transactions (hundreds of millions) alongside major funds like Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and Dragonfly — suggesting flexibility to write larger strategic checks into later-stage treasury and public-market-adjacent structures.
Lead Tendency
The firm's own site states it leads roughly 25% of its deals, positioning it primarily as an active co-investor/syndicate participant that occasionally leads smaller rounds.
Recent Activity
Oddiyana has remained active through 2025-2026 despite a broader crypto venture funding slowdown (the firm's own January 2026 blog post notes the market deployed roughly $8.5B in early 2026 versus $35B across all of 2025). Notable recent activity:
- October 2025: Strategic investment via SPA-led PIPE into Avalanche Treasury Co. (AVAT), part of a $675M merger with Mountain Lake Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: MLAC), alongside Dragonfly, ParaFi, VanEck, Galaxy Digital, Pantera, CoinFund, and Kraken.
- September 2025: Invested in a Solana digital-asset-treasury vehicle via a $400M SPA-led PIPE with Sharps Technology.
- August 2026: Participated in Catapult Trade's (a gamified/omnichain trading app) $6.6M cumulative seed raise alongside KuCoin Ventures and Venture Vault VC.
- Ongoing seed participation across L1/L2 and RWA projects including Nibiru Chain, Defactor, and Nero Chain.
Portfolio Highlights
Featured portfolio companies span the firm's core verticals: World Liberty Financial (WLFI, DeFi), WalletConnect Network (UX/interoperability protocol), Cookie3 (Web3 analytics/affiliate protocol used by 170+ projects), AITECH/Solidus (AI compute infrastructure), Peaq (Layer-1 for the machine economy/DePIN), Obol Collective (decentralized validator infrastructure), Arcium (privacy-preserving computation), and Aligned (Ethereum ZK/rollup infrastructure stack). By self-reported category weighting, the current book skews toward Gaming (~40%) and DeFi/Protocols, with a growing RWA/DePIN and AI allocation in the newer vintage.
Team
- Dorji Rabten, Founder and Managing Partner: A decade in blockchain as a cryptopreneur and evangelist; advised 20+ projects and incubated 10+; co-founder of DeFi, GameFi, and NFT projects; alum of ChungAng University, Seoul.
- Fabian Van Doesburg, Partner: Serial entrepreneur and project-launch specialist; co-founder of 8-bit (former operator behind KuCoin Exchange operations) and advisor at KuCoin Labs; two decades in digital marketing.
- Ava, Business Development: Manages daily operations and updates across 100+ portfolio projects; focused on growth strategy, PR, and partnerships.
- Vincent Calianno, Venture Associate: Blockchain investing and BD background; previously at Google in Commodity Management.
Decision Process
Not explicitly disclosed; the firm's small, tightly-knit partner structure (a Founder/Managing Partner plus one additional Partner, supported by BD and an associate) suggests a partnership-style decision process rather than a formal investment committee.
Founder Preferences
The firm favors technical, crypto-native founding teams building infrastructure, DeFi, gaming, or AI-crypto crossover products, and is comfortable with early, pre-traction teams given its Pre-Seed/Seed focus and incubation offering.
Geographic Focus
Global, with an explicit bridge-building mandate between Eastern (Korea, broader Asia) and Western crypto markets; the firm counts exchanges (KuCoin, Gate, MXC), launchpads, audit firms (Zokyo), and media partners (Cointelegraph, AI Telegraph) across both regions in its ecosystem network.