Benchmark just made one of its most surprising moves in years, leading a $17 million Series A for crypto trading app Fomo - marking the elite VC's rare venture into consumer crypto. The app has exploded from zero to $40 million in daily volume since launching in May, using an unconventional funding strategy that landed 140 angel investors.
Benchmark doesn't usually bet on crypto startups. The legendary VC firm that backed Uber, Twitter, and Instagram has been notoriously selective in the space, with investments limited to Chainalysis and a handful of others since 2018.
But Fomo, a consumer crypto trading app that launched just six months ago, managed to break through. The company announced its $17 million Series A led by Benchmark partner Chetan Puttagunta today, bringing total funding to $19 million.
What convinced Benchmark wasn't just the product - it was the numbers. "We're now doing about $20-$40 million in volume a day, and about $150,000 in revenue a day," co-founder Paul Erlanger told TechCrunch. That's explosive growth for an app that didn't exist seven months ago.
The trajectory started with an unusual fundraising approach. Instead of a traditional seed round, Erlanger and co-founder Se Yong Park - both veterans of crypto trading platform dYdX - compiled a dream list of 200 potential angel investors.
"We knew that every single person would be valuable to us in the business," Erlanger explained. They worked their networks for warm introductions, made cold calls when necessary, and landed checks from 140 of their targets. The roster reads like a who's who of crypto: Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan.
"There's a lot of people we never got to, like Elon Musk," Park admitted with a grin. But of those who took their call, less than a handful said no.
The angel strategy paid off in an unexpected way. Three separate people reached out to Puttagunta offering introductions to Fomo's founders. "Paul and Se and the entire team have a clear vision to make crypto assets both easy to discover and trade," Puttagunta said. "Their vision is clearly resonating with truly exceptional growth since they launched a few months ago."
