Lisk Launches $15M EMpower Fund to Support Web3 Founders in Africa and Beyond

Lisk,  the growth platform designed for Web3 founders in high-growth markets, announced the launch of the Lisk EMpower Fund, a $15 million venture initiative aimed at backing Web3 startups solving real-world problems in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. In addition to the launch of the Lisk EMpower fund, Lisk is excited to announce four early recipients: Lov.cash, a South African digital supply chain platform, Afrikabal, an African Agritech platform, IDRX, an Indonesian stablecoin, and SigraFi, who finances small gold producers and issues gold-backed onchain loan notes.

While developed markets often see competitive and dense VC activity and higher valuations, the Lisk EMpower Fund is hyper-focused on emerging markets where adoption is organic, purpose-driven, and transformative. To date, VCs are overlooking a $5.2 trillion opportunity in emerging markets, where small-to-medium-sized businesses remain underfunded.

“Global VCs have become obsessed with speculation. In high-growth markets, the opposite is true. Founders are solving real problems with real utility and that is where the next unicorns will come from.”

– Gideon Greaves, Head of Investments, Lisk

High-growth markets offer significant growth opportunities, leveraging emerging technology to develop innovative solutions that solve local challenges that otherwise could not be solved by traditional technology. Many founders bootstrap to Series-A level traction without ever raising institutional seed capital. Yet, a knowledge gap remains in the opportunities to invest in these regions.

Emerging markets have consistently outperformed public benchmarks, delivering 9-11% annualized venture returns over the past 10-15 years, according to Cambridge Associates. Lisk believes this marks the start of a generational bull run in emerging markets, driven by unprecedented innovation and the rapid adoption of transformative technologies. In contrast, U.S. seed-stage venture has become oversaturated, with record-high early-stage valuations and near-zero three-year returns. This creates an opportunity to back high-growth founders in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia at fair valuations, while generating uncorrelated, venture-scale returns.

The disconnect is Lisk’s opportunity. The Lisk EMpower Fund addresses a critical gap that most VCs continue to miss. By backing founders at the earliest stages, the Lisk EMpower Fund delivers more than capital, it offers hands-on advisory, Web3 experience, and resources, becoming long-term partners with the founders at the intersection of local impact and global growth.

“Emerging markets are no longer the future of Web3, they are the present. The Lisk EMpower Fund is designed to bridge the capital gap for world-class founders who are building global companies from these ecosystems.”

– Dominic Schwenter, COO, Lisk

The Lisk EMpower Fund model integrates incubation, assessment, and growth capital through a scalable, end-to-end pipeline designed to accelerate high-potential ventures.

• Web3-Native: Dedicated capital for infrastructure and applications solving real-problems in payments, remittances, identity, and supply chain.
• Emerging Markets: Targeting regions that are ripe for organic adoption and have the potential to scale globally.
• Hands-on Advisory: Beyond capital, Lisk operates as a boutique investment bank for startups, supporting founders in refining their narratives, structuring for international fundraising, and securing proper Series A and B rounds.
• Tokenized Fund Structure: The Lisk EMpower Fund utilizes tokenization to streamline LP subscriptions, provide secondary market liquidity, and open access to retail LPs, who are traditionally excluded from venture funds.

By investing in the essential digital infrastructure of emerging economies, Lisk generates venture-scale returns uncorrelated with saturated Western markets. Its structured investment model is designed to de-risk early-stage ventures while providing hands-on advisory support to prepare them for global institutional investment.

Through strategic partnerships with leading local incubators, Lisk gains early access to pre-vetted deal flow across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Selected companies are eligible to receive $250,000 in capital alongside strategic support, ranging from investor-grade financial modeling and legal structuring to access to Lisk’s global VC network.