Key Takeaways
- • Fomo, a crypto trading app founded by former dYdX employees, raised $75 million in Series B funding led by Index Ventures at a $550 million valuation, with Union Square Ventures as a co-investor.
- • The funding round includes participation from prominent angel investors including Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus, Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini, and Eventbrite cofounder Kevin Hartz, signaling cross-sector institutional confidence in the platform.
- • Index Ventures partner Julia Andre emphasized the investment thesis centers on market fundamentals rather than crypto speculation: "We're not doing Fomo because it's a crypto business. We're doing Fomo because we think there is a market shift there, and they have what it takes to capture this next wave of consumer blockchain trading."
- • Fomo addresses documented pain points in onchain trading, including cryptocurrency fragmentation, complex onboarding, token-swapping fees, and UX barriers that have historically limited mainstream adoption of decentralized asset trading.
- • The round demonstrates that established venture firms without exclusive crypto focus—including Index's track record with non-crypto companies like Figma and Scale AI—are increasingly backing blockchain infrastructure startups amid evolving market conditions.
Summary
Fomo, a cryptocurrency trading application founded by Paul Erlanger, Se Yong Park, and Prashan Dharmasena, has secured $75 million in Series B funding at a $550 million valuation. The round was led by Index Ventures, a Geneva-based firm known for backing consumer and enterprise software companies, with significant participation from Union Square Ventures. Additional investors include Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus, Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini, and Eventbrite cofounder Kevin Hartz, reflecting broad institutional appetite for the platform despite current market conditions in digital asset trading.
The company's founding team brings deep operational experience from dYdX, a leading decentralized crypto trading platform. In founding Fomo during 2025, the cofounders identified critical friction points in onchain trading: thousands of available cryptocurrencies, fragmented blockchain ecosystems, opaque fee structures for token swaps, and cumbersome user onboarding procedures. As cofounder Paul Erlanger stated, "Onchain trading is just impossible," framing the company's mission to simplify digital asset trading through an accessible online and mobile application.
Index Ventures' investment reflects a calculated conviction in market structure rather than speculative crypto sentiment. Julia Andre, a partner at Index, articulated this positioning: "We're not doing Fomo because it's a crypto business. We're doing Fomo because we think there is a market shift there, and they have what it takes to capture this next wave of consumer blockchain trading." This language signals institutional investors' focus on infrastructure maturation and consumer adoption barriers, not token volatility. Index's prior cryptographic exposure includes its 2025 participation in Bridge, a stablecoin platform that Stripe subsequently acquired for $1.1 billion, alongside Union Square Ventures' existing investments in Polygon and Matter Labs.
The funding demonstrates convergence between traditional venture capital and blockchain infrastructure development. The participation of non-crypto-native founders and operators—including the Discord and Eventbrite ecosystems—underscores broader belief in consumer blockchain applications as an emerging asset class, independent of prevailing crypto market cycles.
The company's founding team brings deep operational experience from dYdX, a leading decentralized crypto trading platform. In founding Fomo during 2025, the cofounders identified critical friction points in onchain trading: thousands of available cryptocurrencies, fragmented blockchain ecosystems, opaque fee structures for token swaps, and cumbersome user onboarding procedures. As cofounder Paul Erlanger stated, "Onchain trading is just impossible," framing the company's mission to simplify digital asset trading through an accessible online and mobile application.
Index Ventures' investment reflects a calculated conviction in market structure rather than speculative crypto sentiment. Julia Andre, a partner at Index, articulated this positioning: "We're not doing Fomo because it's a crypto business. We're doing Fomo because we think there is a market shift there, and they have what it takes to capture this next wave of consumer blockchain trading." This language signals institutional investors' focus on infrastructure maturation and consumer adoption barriers, not token volatility. Index's prior cryptographic exposure includes its 2025 participation in Bridge, a stablecoin platform that Stripe subsequently acquired for $1.1 billion, alongside Union Square Ventures' existing investments in Polygon and Matter Labs.
The funding demonstrates convergence between traditional venture capital and blockchain infrastructure development. The participation of non-crypto-native founders and operators—including the Discord and Eventbrite ecosystems—underscores broader belief in consumer blockchain applications as an emerging asset class, independent of prevailing crypto market cycles.
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