Solana-based StarFun lets projects raise capital with crypto
StarFun founder says VC intros shouldn’t be needed to start a crypto business — and is looking for $2.5 million in funding
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Another new crypto-powered launchpad platform is setting up shop — but this one’s for the devs.
Star.fun is like a crowdfunding site, but with tokens and for startups. It uses Solana, plus Meteora’s liquidity pools.
“I’m super passionate about the idea that you can build a business and raise money for it all from your laptop without needing intros to VC[s],” Star founder Adam Bergeman told me in a DM.
Instead, Star is a way to bring startup investment opps to the crypto-native masses by letting traders invest in projects simply by buying a startup’s affiliated token.
The site isn’t fully filled out yet, and may add a leadboard soon. Star is starting with its own namesake token to fundraise, and plans to add others’ projects to its launchpad next week.
The Star team plans to use AI to review all founders’ code on GitHub as part of its vetting process. You can probably expect some vibe coders to appear on Star, as well.
The native STAR token will be earnable by referring founders, and can also be purchased as an access token where holders can enter exclusive funding rounds and see more project data, according to its website.
As of Tuesday morning, STAR’s raised $3,600 of its $2.5 million goal. The team is aiming for a fully diluted valuation of $12.5 million via the STAR public sale, according to a pitch deck viewed by Blockworks. The sale began on Monday, and will continue until June 30 next week.
Star plans to commit some of its trading volume revenue to buying back and burning STAR. A quarter of the token’s allocation is being reserved for the team, and another quarter is being reserved for the Star ecosystem.
Like pumpfun, Star-launched tokens will have to graduate in order to have access to bigger liquidity pools. Projects can also raise USDC on Star, too.
While asking around at Permissionless Tuesday morning, Star drew some immediate comparisons to Echo, another next-gen ICO platform for investing in crypto startups. There’s also Legion.
Star reminds me a bit of Stars Arena (RIP) and Friendtech (also RIP), which were mainly about “investing” in people and trading “shares” of their influence via crypto.
Star has two affiliated Wyoming-based LLCs, with one being OpCo LLC and the other being TokenCo LLC, a DAO that oversees the token.
STAR appears to be available to anyone in the US regardless of investor status, as myself and another US-based Blockworks teammate were able to connect our wallets to the site.
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