Etherfuse, a real-world asset tokenization platform, has successfully raised $3 million in a seed funding round, co-led by White Star Capital and North Island Ventures. Key participants also included Stellar Development Foundation, FunFair Ventures, Department of XYZ, Anna Yuan of Solana Foundation, and Alice Ann Schwartz of Rising Tide Network. The funding, which closed in May after beginning in January, has brought Etherfuse's total funding to $5 million and its valuation to $12.5 million. The platform, co-founded by David Taylor, focuses on tokenizing emerging market assets and currently offers various tokenized debt products. Etherfuse plans to expand its offerings and aims to tokenize over 3,500 real-world assets in the next 18 months.

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Etherfuse, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round.White Star Capital and North Island Ventures co-led the round, with Stellar XLM 
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 Foundation and Alice Ann Schwartz of Rising Tide Network participating, Etherfuse said Saturday.The startup began raising funds for the seed round in January and closed it in May, co-founder and CEO David Taylor told The Block. The round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) and brought Etherfuse's valuation to $12.5 million, Taylor, a former Apple and Boeing engineering leader, said.Taylor added that the seed round brings Etherfuse's total funding to $5 million. The startup previously raised $2 million in a pre-seed round from friends and family, also via SAFE.Etherfuse is an RWA tokenization platform co-founded by Taylor and his brother AJ. The platform focuses on tokenizing emerging market assets. "We didn't feel the U.S. would let us innovate on products that could be viewed as securities, so we went to Mexico where we felt we'd be able to develop a tokenized bond product," Taylor said. "Currently, we're the only Mexican peso-denominated yield-bearing asset in the world."Etherfuse currently offers four short-term tokenized debt products: tokenized Mexican Federal Treasury Certificates (CETES), tokenized Brazilian National Treasury Notes (NTS), tokenized European Union bonds from Spain and Germany, and tokenized U.S. Treasurys, Taylor said. Etherfuse calls its tokenized products "stablebonds" as these are tokenized versions of physical bonds issued by sovereign entities.Taylor said Etherfuse currently has about 10,000 Stablebonds holders, and the platform has a total value locked of about $2 million.The Etherfuse tokenization platform is currently live on the Solana, Stellar, and Base blockchains and plans to support more networks in the near future.Etherfuse also plans to tokenize more assets. Taylor said the platform aims to have over 3,500 RWAs, including most governments' short-term debt and anything available on the Mexican stock exchange within the next 18 months."The vision is for Etherfuse to not only capture, but to expand the emerging bond market by removing the manifold barriers that currently prevent people and businesses from accessing the high, real and safe yields that these assets provide," Sep Alavi, general partner at White Star Capital, said in a statement. "Providing an API to the blockchain world that connects to some of the safest investment assets is hugely enabling for app developers, including those working with stablecoins, looking to build safer, higher-yield, and more stable products on-chain."Alavi has joined Etherfuse's board of directors as part of co-leading the startup's seed round, Taylor said.There are currently six people working for Etherfuse, and Taylor plans to add two more people for community development or growth functions. Asked if Etherfuse plans to issue its own native token in the future, Taylor said the platform doesn't have any plans to do so.Stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends with my bimonthly newsletter, The Funding. It's free. Sign uphere!

Etherfuse Raises $3M in Seed Funding, Valued at $12.5M