We’re excited to welcome Maria Potapneva as a judge for Pivot’s Open Demo Day Edition 3!

Funders VC is an early stage venture fund backing ambitious founders across Web3, AI, and emerging tech, with a strong focus on founder support, fundraising strategy, and long term growth.

With over 8+ years in the space, Maria has helped 100+ startups raise capital and launched numerous products as a CPO. Having worked closely with founders and investors alike.

Maria offers practical feedback on product direction, fundraising prep, and what really makes startups stand out to VCs.

🔗 Register here to participate → https://luma.com/b7bnamuq

#letspivot

🔥 The stage is set. The judges are in. The ecosystem is showing up. 🔥

Pivot's Open Demo Day Edition 3 is bringing together some of the sharpest operators, investors, founders, and ecosystem leaders across Web3, AI, infrastructure, security, cloud, and venture capital.

From leading VCs and launchpads to global cloud providers, blockchain ecosystems, and security pioneers, this is a room built for meaningful conversations, honest feedback, and real opportunities for founders.

This isn't just another pitch event.

It's where startups get challenged, stories get refined, connections get made, and opportunities begin.

A huge thank you to all our judges, partners, founders, builders, and ecosystem supporters helping make us Edition 3.

⚡ Whether you're raising capital, validating your product, finding strategic partners, or simply looking to learn from experienced operators, this is where you need to be.

📅 June 9, 2026 | 1:00 PM UTC

🔗 Register here to participate → https://luma.com/b7bnamuq

#letspivot

🚀 Meet the Top 5 Finalists presenting at Pivot's Open Demo Day - Edition 3!

The applications this time were stronger than ever. We reviewed startups from across the globe, spanning infrastructure, AI, consumer applications, and Web3 innovation.

Selecting just five wasn't easy.

After careful evaluation, these teams earned their place on tomorrow's stage:

🎉 Finalists 👇

1️⃣ Renesisfi - Building the institutional operating system for crypto funds, unifying portfolio management, execution, and operations across CeFi and DeFi.

2️⃣ Swarp Pay - Creating the next generation of digital asset access, token launch infrastructure, and cross-border payment rails for emerging markets.

3️⃣ Gen6 - Restoring trust in the AI era through blockchain-powered identity, digital signatures, and encryption infrastructure.

4️⃣ RateX AI - Building an AI-powered institutional trading terminal that brings BlackRock-level intelligence to decentralized markets.

5️⃣ Cray - Enabling instant, low-fee blockchain payments that connect real-world merchants directly with customer wallets.

Tomorrow, these founders will pitch live in front of investors, ecosystem leaders, operators, and judges from across the Web3 ecosystem.

🏆 One team will take the top spot.

⏰ June 9, 2026 | 1:00 PM UTC

🔗 Register here: https://luma.com/b7bnamuq

See you at Demo Day.

#letspivot

Meet the judges for Pivot's Open Demo Day – Edition 3 🚀

Tomorrow, our finalists won't just be pitching. They'll be presenting in front of operators, investors, and ecosystem leaders who have spent years helping startups scale, raise capital, and navigate the Web3 landscape.

We're excited to welcome:
🔹 Rohit Kaul - Head of Investor Relations, Pivot
🔹 Devika Mittal - India Head, Avalanche
🔹 Ev Medvedev - Head of Operations, Legion
🔹 Maria Potapneva - VC Associate, Funders VC

Together, they bring expertise across venture capital, ecosystem growth, fundraising, token launches, operations, and startup scaling.

Their role goes beyond judging. They'll challenge assumptions, ask the hard questions, and provide valuable feedback to help founders sharpen their vision and accelerate growth.

A huge thank you to our judges for supporting the next generation of Web3 founders.

⏰ June 9, 2026 | 1:00 PM UTC
🔗 Register here: https://luma.com/b7bnamuq

See you at Demo Day.

#letspivot

⚡ Just 6 Hours to Go ⚡

Pivot's Open Demo Day – Edition 3 goes live today at 1:00 PM UTC.

Five promising Web3 startups will take the stage to pitch their vision in front of investors, operators, and ecosystem leaders from across the industry.

With 30+ VCs and angel investors confirmed, along with an incredible lineup of judges and partners, we're looking forward to an afternoon of thoughtful conversations, honest feedback, and exciting opportunities for founders.

📅 Today
⏰ 1:00 PM UTC
💻 Online

👉 Register here to receive the Zoom link: https://luma.com/b7bnamuq

See you at Demo Day.

#letspivot

🚨 Pivot Open Demo Day – Edition 3 is NOW LIVE! 🚨

The room is filling up and we're about to kick off an exciting lineup of Web3 startups pitching live in front of investors, operators, and ecosystem leaders.

If you haven't joined yet, there's still time.

🔗 Register here:
https://luma.com/b7bnamuq

🔗 Join the live Zoom session:
https://rebrand.ly/7hzv8ro

Join us live.

#letspivot #OpenDemoDay #Web3 #Startups

100+ Applications → 25 Shortlisted → 5 Finalists → 1 Winner 🏆

🥇 Congratulations to Renesis Fi - Winner of Pivot's Open Demo Day Edition 3!

Renesis Fi is building the institutional operating system for crypto funds, providing a unified platform for portfolio management, execution, reporting, and operations across both CeFi and DeFi.

Their vision for simplifying institutional crypto infrastructure and enabling seamless fund operations earned them the top spot among an incredible lineup of finalists.

👏 A huge congratulations as well to Swarp Pay, Gen6, RateX AI, and Cray for making it to the final stage and showcasing the innovation being built across the Web3 ecosystem.

To every founder who applied - thank you for building, shipping, and putting yourselves out there.

More Open Demo Days are coming your way.

#letspivot

$802.20M raised for deploying privacy-first, institutional blockchain networks for global tier-1 financial institutions.

Canton Network, engineered by Digital Asset, has amassed a massive cumulative capital footprint of $802.20 million. Governed directly by a heavyweight coalition of the world's leading market makers, exchanges, and commercial banking groups.

It’s more than just providing a public ledger for basic asset issuance. Canton Network is deploying a highly specialized Layer-1 framework that solves the historical friction between absolute privacy and atomic interoperability. Built on the proprietary DAML smart contract language, the system enforces strict, need-to-know data segregation guaranteeing that different market participants see only the regulatory data points relevant to their exact compliance check.

Why it Matters?
Legacy capital markets cannot safely migrate to public blockchain rails without compromising absolute client confidentiality and strict jurisdictional compliance controls. Canton Network is serving as the foundational infrastructure layer required to safely transition multi trillion dollar traditional assets into an integrated, round the clock digital financial ecosystem.

#letspivot

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵.

The AI boom has made compute one of the world's scarcest resources. While demand keeps exploding, a handful of cloud giants control access, forcing startups into long waitlists and expensive infrastructure costs.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆? Millions of GPUs remain idle across the globe.

Enterprise servers, mining facilities, and gaming rigs hold massive unused compute capacity, yet remain disconnected from builders who desperately need it. This imbalance keeps costs high and slows innovation.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲: Decentralized AI Compute Marketplaces are turning idle hardware into a global, permissionless compute layer.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀:

• Hyper-Fractionalized Supply: Aggregating underutilized chips into a shared compute pool.
• Lower Costs: Reducing AI training and inference expenses by up to 70%.
• Cryptographic Verification: Ensuring nodes execute workloads honestly.
• Permissionless Access: Allowing developers worldwide to deploy instantly.

🔅 Read in Details here: https://x.com/pivotintelHQ/status/2065438977923100704

#letspivot

⚡️ 𝗣𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁 𝘅 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 ⚡️

Bitcoin Asia 2026 is where global markets, institutional capital, and the builders shaping the future of digital assets come together.

Bringing together influential leaders from across East and West, the event focuses on collaboration, meaningful conversations, and the long-term growth of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

𝗔𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿, 𝗣𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝟭𝟬% 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆.

🎟 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁:
👉 Get your tickets here: https://tickets.b.tc/event/bitcoin-asia-2026

👉 Apply the code at checkout: 𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗩𝗢𝗧

Join us this August as the global Bitcoin ecosystem comes together to move beyond speculation and focus on building what comes next.

#letspivot

Most observers treat decentralized prediction markets like standard speculative betting shops.

But beneath the viral volume charts, a structural shift is happening:

forecasting pools are evolving into coordination engines that actively shape reality rather than just mirroring it.

The startups winning today aren't building passive sentiment trackers, they are programming open order books to act as self-fulfilling prophecies for governance and capital allocation. Because a pure betting arena without systemic utility is still just temporary noise.

In our latest article, we break down why prediction markets are evolving into coordination markets, and how builders are turning speculative liquidity into core operational infrastructure.

Read more here: https://pivotintelhq.medium.com/prediction-markets-are-evolving-into-coordination-markets-2c64cf6fa6fa

#letspivot

Most founders think their extreme stress comes from an overwhelming workload.

But the truth is far more structural: startup anxiety doesn't pile up from the tasks you are executing, it accumulates from the hard decisions you are actively avoiding.

The teams winning today aren't waiting for perfect, nonexistent data, they are running disciplined loops to make tough choices fast and clear the mental friction paralyzing their operations.

Because a flawless roadmap stuck in executive limbo is still a dead startup.

In our latest article, we break down why most startup stress comes from unmade decisions, and how to aggressively clear your choice bottlenecks before they break your momentum.

Read more here: Most founders think their extreme stress comes from an overwhelming workload

#letspivot

Beyond Speculation: Building the Future of Global Finance

A reminder that Pivot is proud to be the official partner for the HSC Conference in Ho Chi Minh City 🇻🇳

As digital assets mature, the conversation is increasingly centered around infrastructure, institutional participation, tokenized finance, and the role stablecoins could play in the global financial system.

Founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders will come together to discuss the trends shaping the next phase of the industry.

If you're building, investing, or closely following the future of digital finance, we'd love to see you there.

📍 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
🎟 Register here: luma.com/HSC_HoChiMinh

#letspivot

$32M raised to connect traditional banking with global stablecoin payment rails.

Trace Finance secured $32 million with backing from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Crypto, Paxos, Chainlink Labs, and HOF Capital.

The company is building infrastructure that combines local banking networks with stablecoin settlement, helping businesses move money across borders more efficiently. The new capital will support expansion across the U.S., Latin America, and Asia-Pacific while strengthening FX and compliance capabilities.

Why it Matters?

As stablecoins move further into the regulated financial system, the need for compliant banking infrastructure is becoming increasingly important.

By combining local payment networks with digital asset rails, companies like Trace Finance are helping modernize cross-border payments for global businesses.

#letspivot

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝟯 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹.

They spend months refining whitepapers, optimizing tokenomics, and shipping code, expecting investors to discover them through merit alone.

But despite Web3's promise of openness, fundraising still runs on trust and relationships.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁?

Most cold applications never make it past the first filter. Warm introductions, trusted referrals, and existing networks continue to shape where capital flows.

As a result, many technically strong teams struggle to access the resources needed to scale.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲:

We operate in a relationship-driven capital environment. In a market full of noise, investors rely on trust to reduce risk. Raising capital isn't only about building great products, it's also about building the right relationships.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀:

• Leveraging ecosystem partners and foundations for warm introductions.
• Building relationships with investors before opening a round.
• Working with connected angels and syndicates that can validate execution.
• Turning early users, developers, and community members into proof-of-trust for institutional capital.

Read more here: https://x.com/pivotintelHQ/status/2065438977923100704

$465M raised to expand Africa's digital payment infrastructure.

Flutterwave has secured a total of $465 million in funding as it scales its pan-African fintech network and payment infrastructure.

The company provides a unified platform that connects bank transfers, cards, mobile money, and digital wallets through a single API, helping businesses operate seamlessly across African markets. Flutterwave is also integrating stablecoins like USDC and USDT and working with blockchain partners to enable faster cross-border settlements.

Why it Matters?

As emerging markets continue to digitize, efficient cross-border payments remain a major challenge.

By combining traditional payment networks with stablecoin rails, Flutterwave is helping build the infrastructure needed to connect African commerce with the global digital economy.

#letspivot

Most founders think company culture is built on whiteboards and office perks.

But true culture isn’t what you celebrate, it’s what you are actively willing to sacrifice when your bottom line is on the line.

The startups winning today aren't just writing generic value handbooks, they are making the hard, painful trade-offs that keep their team aligned through intense market pressure.

Because a beautiful mission statement over a compromised operational environment is still a broken company.

In our latest article, we break down why startup culture is built entirely through repeated trade-offs, and how to define what your core values should actually cost you.

Read more here: Startup Culture Is Built Through Repeated Trade-Offs

#letspivot

Most Modular founders are choosing their data availability (DA) layer based on cheap fees alone.

They track immediate costs and assume scalability is solved, looking at a one-dimensional map. The DA battle isn't just a race to the bottom on price, it is a high-stakes architectural war that determines the structural security and throughput limits of every rollup.

And the frustrating part?

Many teams treat the choice between an independent network and a restaked service plane as a simple plug-and-play decision. They ignore the trade-offs between public verifiability and high performance, leading to either capacity bottlenecks on general-purpose ledgers or compromised decentralization from localized data committees.

Here's the Decode:

We are witnessing a split into two core philosophies: sovereign networks relying on independent validator sets doing data availability sampling, and restaking ecosystems leveraging existing network operators for maximum raw throughput. It is a structural choice between public, decentralized verifiability and enterprise-grade data bandwidth.

This shift offers:

- Sovereign Verifiability: Light nodes verifying data availability efficiently without needing to download the entire ledger state.
- Restaked Throughput: Hyper-scale data pipelines delivering massive bandwidth backed by multi-billion dollar cryptoeconomic security.
- Workload Sharding: Splitting data destinations so low-security telemetry goes to independent chains while high-frequency trading stays native.
- Dual-DA Architectures: Implementing hybrid structures where one layer serves as a fast hot path and another acts as the secure audit substrate.

Read the full decode: https://x.com/pivotintelHQ/status/2069773382674247779

#letspivot

Most founders assume VCs invest in numbers.

Revenue growth. User traction. Retention curves. Unit economics.

But the biggest funding rounds often happen before those metrics fully exist.

Because venture capital is fundamentally a bet on the future, and the future is first communicated through narrative.

The startups attracting capital aren't just presenting data. They're convincing investors that a massive shift is already underway, and that they're positioned at the center of it.

Metrics eventually validate the story. But the story usually gets funded first.

In our latest article, we break down why VCs often fund narratives before metrics catch up, how compelling stories shape investment decisions, and why founders who understand this dynamic raise capital more effectively.

Read more here: https://pivotintelhq.medium.com/vcs-fund-narratives-before-metrics-catch-up-acd659cf20f6

#letspivot

Bitbank has expanded its total funding to $357.2 million after completing a $289 million M&A deal, building on an earlier $68.2 million investment led by Japan's Ceres.

Rather than operating solely as a crypto exchange, Bitbank is developing a fully regulated digital asset platform that connects Japan's traditional banking system with global crypto markets through institutional-grade trading, lending, and liquidity services.

The platform offers advanced trading infrastructure, including low-latency APIs, deep liquidity, margin trading, and TradingView-powered analytics, enabling businesses and professional traders to execute transactions efficiently under Japan's strict regulatory framework.

Why it matters: As institutional crypto adoption grows across Asia, regulated exchanges like Bitbank are becoming critical bridges between traditional finance and digital assets. Its FSA-compliant infrastructure demonstrates how centralized exchanges can safely onboard corporate capital while meeting high regulatory and security standards.

#letspivot

$20M raised for integrating regulated derivatives infrastructure with the consumer prediction economy.

Onyx Odds has raised $20 million in a Series A round at a $220 million valuation, led by Payward with backing from XFUND and Breyer Capital. The platform aims to expand the prediction economy by offering market-based sports prediction through virtual coins and sweepstakes.

As part of the partnership, Onyx Odds will integrate with Payward's regulated U.S. derivatives infrastructure, providing deeper crypto liquidity and compliant prediction market access.

Why it Matters?
The convergence of sports entertainment, predictive data, and decentralized finance is driving a massive surge in exchange-traded consumer platforms. By bypassing years of regulatory and technical backend debt through Payward's institutional infrastructure, Onyx Odds establishes a highly compliant blueprint for how modern fintech platforms can offer mass-scale prediction trading without sacrificing structural asset protection.

#letspivot