The Capital Gap Is Real. The Lisk EMpower Fund Is Here to Close It.

The next wave of global Web3 adoption isn’t being driven by speculation or hype – it’s being pulled forward by necessity. In high-growth emerging economies where runaway inflation, widespread unbanked populations, and prohibitive cross-border costs are everyday realities, blockchain is not a novelty – it is a necessity. Yet despite solving tangible problems with proven resilience, founders in these markets remain deprived of the capital and tailored investment structures needed to scale.

According to a report by AVCA and Crunchbase, less than 5% of global venture capital reached Africa and Latin America in 2022. While developed markets are crowded with dense VC activity and inflated valuations, emerging markets tell a different story. Adoption is organic, purpose-driven, and transformative – yet VCs continue to overlook a $5.2 trillion opportunity in small-to-medium-sized businesses that remain underfunded. As a result, many startups with Series A–ready products remain stuck at seed stage — undervalued even after proving product–market fit and demonstrating readiness to scale. This mismatch between progress on the ground and access to capital leaves promising companies unable to reach their full potential.

Yet despite these challenges, emerging markets have consistently outperformed public benchmarks. According to Cambridge Associates, funds in these regions have delivered ~9–11% net annualized returns to LPs over the past 10–15 years, outpacing public markets.. We believe this momentum signals the beginning of a generational bull run, driven by unprecedented innovation and rapid adoption of transformative technologies. In contrast, U.S. venture has turned negative, posting –2.7% net annualized returns over the past three years, weighed down by oversaturation, inflated seed valuations, and weak exit markets.

This surge has been driven not only by rising global VC inflows but by the rapid adoption of fintech across emerging markets. In regions where traditional banking infrastructure is weak, millions remain unbanked, and cross-border payments are costly, fintech has become the default system of trust. Mobile wallets, remittances, and alternative payments have scaled at unprecedented speed — laying the rails for the next wave: Web3 technologies and stablecoin adoption. The EMpower Fund is positioned to ride that progression, backing the founders turning these structural gaps into global opportunities. Yet while innovation is accelerating, investment has not kept pace. This stark disconnect is the opportunity we see at Lisk — and the reason we launched the Lisk EMpower Fund, a $15 million venture initiative dedicated to founders in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The fund is designed to close this gap by backing startups solving real-world problems, while pairing investment with hands-on advisory and long-term partnership.

What Makes the EMpower Fund Different?

There are plenty of initiatives in emerging markets today — grants, incubators, hackathons — and they all play a vital role in sparking ideas. But too often, support stops there. Founders with validated products and real traction are left standing at the edge of a capital cliff, with little guidance on how to become globally investable companies.

The Lisk EMpower Fund closes that gap. What sets it apart is a model built for scale:

• Structured pathway. From incubation → to a first check of up to $250,000 → to Series A readiness.
• Hands-on partnership. Advisory that includes investor-grade financial modeling, governance support, and global fundraising guidance.
• Web3-native focus. Capital directed toward high-utility applications in payments, remittances, supply chains, and digital identity.
• Innovative fund structure. Tokenization streamlines LP subscriptions, provides secondary liquidity, and opens ventures to a broader class of investors.
• Proprietary deal flow. Through partnerships with leading local incubators and on-the-ground teams, the Fund gains pre-vetted access to the strongest founders across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America — a pipeline global VCs can’t replicate.
• Ecosystem integration. Backed companies plug into the Lisk Layer 2 – a growing Ethereum-aligned network optimized for emerging markets.

For Investors: A New Kind of Access

The Lisk EMpower Fund isn’t only built for founders — it also creates compelling opportunities for LPs through its tokenized structure. This innovation streamlines subscriptions, enables secondary liquidity, and opens early-stage ventures to retail investors traditionally excluded from the asset class.

For LPs, the value is clear:

• Early access. Exposure to undervalued, Series A–ready ventures in markets with proven adoption but limited capital.
• De-risked structure. A funnel that combines incubation, early checks, and hands-on advisory reduces the traditional risks of early-stage investing.
• Web3 upside with liquidity. Participation in the most promising adoption markets, coupled with liquidity rarely seen in venture funds.

In short, the Lisk EMpower Fund combines the growth potential of emerging markets with the security of a structured approach and the accessibility of tokenized participation.

Beyond Capital: Preparing Founders for Global Scale

The Lisk EMpower Fund is more than just capital. This is where the Lisk Advisory Program strengthens the model — working directly with founders to sharpen their pitch, build investor-ready data rooms and models, strengthen governance, and unlock warm introductions across our global network. By pairing funding with hands-on guidance, we help resilient local startups break through the investment barrier and become globally investable ventures.

By combining capital with this level of advisory support, the Lisk EMpower Fund ensures that startups are not only funded but prepared to scale on the global stage. The first companies to benefit from this approach already show how powerful the model can be.

Proof in Action

From supply chains to stablecoins, from agritech to gold-backed finance, the first four recipients of the Lisk EMpower Fund showcase the breadth of innovation emerging markets bring to Web3:

• Lov.cash — a South African digital supply chain platform.
• Afrikabal — an African agritech marketplace connecting smallholder farmers with global buyers and investors.
• IDRX — an Indonesian stablecoin solution designed to expand financial access for unbanked populations.
• SigraFi — financing small gold producers through gold-backed onchain loan notes.
  

These companies demonstrate the kind of real-world innovation that can scale from local impact to global relevance — the exact trajectory the Lisk EMpower Fund is built to accelerate.

Looking Ahead

The next wave of Web3 won’t be built in Silicon Valley or saturated markets — it’s already emerging where the need is greatest in high-growth markets. The Lisk EMpower Fund is here to back those founders and open the door for investors who want to be part of that journey.

👉 Founders: apply here.