Web3 rising: CryptoLeague raises $2.2M pre-seed round, opens waitlist for pioneering investing platform

Fresh off a pair of startup exits early last year, Miami entrepreneur Rodolfo Saccoman knew he wanted his fourth venture to mix a few of his favorite things – crypto, investing and community – but he wasn’t sure how. Then, a couple months later, Saccoman joined the On Deck Miami Drop, where he quickly clicked with entrepreneurs Gleb Chuvpilo and Jeffrey Nuckols. They would become his co-founders; he just didn’t know it yet.

Then, while getting a massage, the concept of  CryptoLeague came to him in a vision. “I had this stream of consciousness moment where I could see the entire platform of CryptoLeague in my head,” Saccoman said. He soon presented the concept to Chuvpilo and Nuckols and they immediately joined. “It was mixing all of these things that I love to solve how we can make trading better by involving community while involving this huge tectonic shift in how the younger generation is engaging in play to earn.”

CryptoLeague seeks to pioneer a new category in investment platforms by empowering web3 communities with the tools to accelerate their financial freedom. The details are still in stealth, but the website gives some clues that community and gamification will play key roles. “CryptoLeague unleashes the power of community investing. It’s a space for competitive investing made easy, fueled by a first of its kind Engage-to-Earn™️ economy incentivized to accelerate financial freedom for all,” cryptoleague.org states. A waitlist is now open.

Traditional investing for too long has been a solo, and often boring, endeavor typically for the elite and it is unsuited to the new NFT and crypto savvy generation, explained Saccoman, CryptoLeague’s CEO. “The game has changed. CryptoLeague is unleashing the power of collaboration and access to quality knowledge in a first-of-its-kind platform, all aimed at generating life-changing investment returns.”

Here comes the money

Seeking initial funding came next, and that came together quickly. CryptoLeague is announcing today that the startup has closed an oversubscribed pre-seed round of $2.2 million from seven VC firms from California, New York, Florida and beyond — Great Oaks VC, Gaingels, Magic Fund, Sidedoor Ventures, Darling Ventures, Boutique Capital and Florida Funders – as well as a group of super-angels.

The funding will be used for further development of the CryptoLeague product and assembling a global team, and that is well underway.

“We were three people a month ago, now we’re 18 people, and we’re building super, super fast. I don’t think this could have happened in Miami a few years ago,” said Saccoman, referring to the recent momentum the Miami Tech community has experienced with thousands of founders and investors moving to the area.

“It’s a different world and the new Miami is just amazing.”

The team

In February 2021, Saccoman, a longtime investor in stocks, crypto and more recently NFTs, sold Admobilize, a  computer vision AI analytics company, and IoT startup Matrix Labs, both startups he founded and led to exits. And in addition to his Miami startup life of the last 15 years, he was formerly a stockbroker and portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley. Independently, he made his first Bitcoin investment in 2012 and began seriously trading altcoins in 2015.

Nuckols, CryptolLeague’s COO, is a technology executive and operator with 20 years of experience scaling and managing multibillion-dollar tech and finance businesses, including HPE, IBM, Xerox and PwC. Chuvpilo, CTO, is a serial entrepreneur and investor with several exits and was one of the earliest engineers at Palantir. He has also managed quantitative trading portfolios at Goldman Sachs.

“We were extremely impressed with the team at CryptoLeague,” said Tom Wallace of the locally based Florida Funders, the most active VC firm in the state. “The co-founders have several successful exits under their belts and are bringing their vision and complementary skills together in the exciting and growing space merging crypto, trading, social, and gaming.”

Advisors include Kevin Simback, the COO of Delphi Labs, and Miami entrepreneur Will Weinraub, co-founder and CEO of OnChain Studios. The CryptoLeague team, now 18 and counting, includes former employees of Goldman Sachs, PwC, Palantir and Morgan Stanley, mainly people the co-founders have worked with before.

Global and local ambitions

Last month, CryptoLeague opened an office in Miami’s Wynwood arts district last month, complete with a podcast studio, where they will be engaging with web3 entrepreneurs and influencers. And for the Brazilian born Saccoman, the vision for CryptoLeague includes global impact, he said in an interview in his office.

“I drive here every day and I have so much gratitude to be able to build a company in blockchain and crypto. If we nail this, this could be one of the companies that accelerates financial freedom for people globally. We have a very unique way of trading crypto and NFTs that will work through the power and wisdom of the crowds and community investing.”

Locally, Saccoman also hopes CyptoLeague plays a role in building Miami into a crypto capital, as Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has been championing, and to be sure, activity in the crypto/blockchain/NFT space has been exploding.

In the US, the Miami metro area and Los Angeles were tied for 3rd place, behind New York and San Francisco, as the biggest markets for crypto/blockchain VC activity in 2021. The Miami metro also recently ranked No. 5 for crypto-related job postings, according to a LinkedIn analysis. And last month, Blockchain.com announced it signed a 10-year lease for its US HQ in Wynwood. Its new home base for up to 300 employees will be in the “Blockchain.com Building.”

 “There’s so many people here who just want to cross over into web3,” Saccoman said. “Wynwood can become one of the NFT capitals of the world… and if you look around, it’s almost like you’re seeing NFTs everywhere. Our team members just love coming to the office.”

About the Miami momentum, Saccoman adds: “People can finally see what we all have seen for so long. Miami is organically diverse. People can just be themselves. There’s  the weather, and obviously, taxes. There’s all these very eclectic neighborhoods. Miami is a startup place.

“Miami has that fire — it is in our culture.”

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Photo at top of post: CryptoLeague’s co-founders rented a Miami house they called their CryptoLeague Hack House for a week to do intense coding and designing. Photo provided by Rodolfo Saccoman.

Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg and email her at [email protected].

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Nancy Dahlberg