Lisk has launched a $15 million investment initiative, the Lisk EMpower Fund, to accelerate Web3 startups in Africa, Latin America (LATAM), and Southeast Asia.
The fund positions itself as a counterweight to the saturated Western venture capital market, where valuations are at record highs and returns are falling.
Lisk 's $15M EMpower Fund Targets Gaps Missed by Global Venture Capital
Lisk believes that the world's most impactful Web3 companies will emerge from emerging economies often overlooked by Silicon Valley.
The Lisk EMpower Fund will distribute up to $250,000 in Capital to each startup, while also providing hands-on advice on regulatory compliance, Tokenize strategy, and Capital.
Initial recipients include South Africa's Lov.cash (digital supply chain ), Afrikabal (agritech) , Indonesia's IDRX (stablecoin), and SigraFi (gold-backed lending).
According to Gideon Greaves, Head of Investments at Lisk, the fund's thesis is simple: where global Venture Capital see risk, Lisk sees overlooked value .
“Founders in Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia have proven that they can build products with real adoption despite limited access to venture Capital ,” Greaves told BeInCrypto.
$5.2 trillion untapped opportunity
Emerging markets represent a $5.2 trillion untapped investment opportunity , with venture capital returns Medium 9–11% annually over the past 15 years. Yet many founders in these regions are self-funding their startups to the Series A stage without institutional support.
Greaves believes this need-based entrepreneurship is often a better recipe for resilient founders.
“Someone who gets emotionally attached to their product and sees it as an extension of themselves,” he explains.
By only getting involved after startups have proven growth, Lisk minimizes risk while providing advice to ensure companies are ready for the Series A stage.
This means that Lisk EMpower Fund recipients will receive consulting support on regulatory compliance, Tokenize strategy, and Capital preparation.
“The Lisk EMpower Fund has given us Capital, credibility, and community, transforming Afrikabal from a local pilot project into a global infrastructure player,” Oghenetejiri Jesse, CEO of Afrikabal, said in an exclusive statement to BeInCrypto.
Greaves compares this approach to what he calls “skydiving Capital ” often deployed by Western investors.
Bridging the gap between risk and value
For decades, Western Venture Capital have viewed emerging markets as volatile and opaque. Lisk rejects that view.
“Where Western Venture Capital see ‘risk,’ we see mispriced opportunity. Emerging markets are not inherently unstable — they are just Capital, misunderstood, and growing faster than the West,” Greaves said.
This position gives Lisk a double advantage. On one hand, founders get more than just cash, while on the other, global investors get a vetted deal flow and reduced risk.
With seed-stage projects in the US facing near-zero returns in three years, the disconnect between Capital supply and demand from emerging markets is widening — a gap that Lisk intends to fill.
“We are not chasing trends. We are unlocking overlooked value and connecting emerging markets to global Capital ,” Greaves added.
Tokenization and the future of venture capital
A standout feature of the EMpower Fund is the Tokenize structure for limited partner (LP) subscriptions. By digitizing LP shares , Lisk introduces liquidation to an asset class that traditionally locks up Capital for a decade.
“Tokenize doesn’t create new risks — it simply digitizes an old, cumbersome process. The Token is tied directly to a real fund share, so it’s not speculative. It’s just a better wrapper,” Greaves said.
This structure allows retail investors to participate while facilitating liquidation in the secondary market — a move Greaves said demonstrates credibility.
“If Venture Capital really believe in Web3, they should prove it by implementing it themselves.”
Impact as a by-product of scale
Unlike many emerging market funds that focus solely on impact, Lisk asserts its view as business-first.
“In our markets, impact is the outcome of success. A startup building a blockchain-based remittance service is reducing costs for millions of unbanked families. A project solving the problem of digital identity is expanding access to credit. These are disruptive businesses at first, but their growth naturally leads to large-scale social benefits,” Greaves said.
For him, the same Trustless transparency and efficiency that blockchain brings also makes local impact measurable and inevitable.
The next wave of unicorns
Lisk sees the biggest opportunities in financial infrastructure, digital identity and supply chain visibility. Greaves points to a $1.68 trillion mobile money volume by 2024, two-thirds of which will come from Africa, as evidence of the rapid pace of growth.
“Blockchain has the power to transform emerging markets into developed markets. If emerging markets are the first to adopt on- chain infrastructure, they will lead the way — while developed markets, distracted by speculation and short-term profits, will be forced to follow,” he concluded.
If Lisk 's thesis is correct, the next generation of Web3 unicorns will not be created in Silicon Valley but will emerge across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, while the West struggles to catch up.
