Dubai's Cequire allocates $100M to early-stage blockchain startups
What's the deal? CequireDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Dubai-based firm, has launched a $100 million venture capital fund targeting pre-seed and seed blockchain startups. Founded in the UAE in 2024 by Salman Parsi, the firm says it has already invested over $50 million across more than 20 Web3 projects.
How it's structured: The plan splits capital three ways — 60% to venture rounds, 30% to listed tokens, and 10% to co-investments with partner funds. Cequire will lead or co-lead rounds with checks of $500,000 to $2 million, with $50 million already available to deploy.
Why now? The firm is targeting a widening funding gap. Parsi points to an 88% drop in seed-stage crypto deals between 2022 and the first half of 2026 — from 694 to 81 — as some large funds pivoted to AI and robotics or exited digital assets entirely, citing Tiger Research and RootDataDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
What's the endgame? Cequire is betting beyond crypto speculation on financial and technical infrastructure: stablecoins, tokenised real-world assets, AI-agent payments, privacy tools, and post-quantum security. It also buys tokens directly from project treasuries under lock-up and vesting schedules, aiming to fund teams without triggering sell pressure in open markets.
One backer: The commitment is supported by a single long-term investor, according to Parsi. That structure frees the firm from a traditional fund lifespan or the need to raise new capital periodically, letting it back projects from seed through exit.
The signal: Cequire's allocation lands in a market that still funds blockchain but increasingly concentrates capital in later-stage companies. Sector funding fell 20% quarter-on-quarter to $4.5 billion in the third quarter of 2026, with roughly 76% going to late-stage firms and new funds dropping to three, the lowest since 2019, per Galaxy ResearchDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. A dedicated early-stage commitment is notable, but the real test will be how much is actually deployed — and whether target companies can show sustainable demand and revenue.
Read more: entarabi.com
Image credit: Cequire
