MetaCartel Ventures

What MetaCartel Ventures does

MetaCartel Ventures operates as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that distributes ETH grants to early-stage Web3 projects within the Ethereum ecosystem. Funding members contribute ETH to the DAO treasury and, in return, receive on-chain DAO membership with governance voting rights; grants are then allocated to projects whose values align with the community, with no financial return expected from recipients. The organization's core "products" are the grants program itself, the DAO governance layer (operated on Gnosis Chain via DAOhaus at contract 0x64/0xb152b115c94275b54a3f0b08c1aa1d21f32a659a), and a portfolio of event and community properties including MCON (a recurring DAO conference), MetaCamp (an in-person unconference held in Costa Rica in 2022), Public Nouns (an NFT offering launched in 2022), and Hydra DAO (a new DAO sub-architecture with a published whitepaper).

The underlying technology stack is Web3-native: on-chain governance on Gnosis Chain rather than Ethereum mainnet (a migration made in 2020 to escape rising gas fees), a Community First Manifesto gating soft-membership, weekly "Taco Townhall" governance calls on Discord, and forum-based proposal workflows. The business model is not revenue-generating in the conventional sense — ETH inflows are capital contributions deployed as grants, and the value capture mechanism is reputational and network-based rather than financial. Notable grant recipients that grew into prominent protocols include Aave, Gelato, Zapper, MetaFactory, MetaGame, DAOhaus, and Raid Guild, which collectively form the visible "ecosystem" MetaCartel markets itself around. Headcount is reported at 11-50 participants across a globally distributed, remote-first membership.

From a go-to-market standpoint, distribution runs through Discord, Twitter (@Meta_Cartel), a dedicated forum (forum.metacartel.org), and IRL events rather than paid sales or marketing. Onboarding is either via ETH contribution (funding member path) or via signing the Community First Manifesto (contributor path), with no disclosed pricing schedule or membership fees beyond the ETH contribution itself. The organization is privately held as a DAO with no parent company, no disclosed subsidiaries, no institutional cap table, and no disclosed token distribution.

Name

MetaCartel Ventures

Website

https://metacartel.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

MetaCartel Ventures is a DAO that distributes ETH grants to early-stage Web3 projects in the Ethereum ecosystem, funded by ETH contributions from members who receive on-chain governance rights in return. Its visible portfolio includes Aave, Gelato, and Zapper.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Venture Funding

NAICS

Other Financial Vehicles (52599)

SIC

Finance Services (6199), Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)

akta.pro primary industry

Grants, Funding & Budget Allocation Platforms (FSAPAHAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

DAO Treasury, Governance & On-Chain Finance Tools (FSADAMAL), Governance Frameworks & DAO Tooling (modules, templates, standards) (FSAPAHAC), Coordination & Contributor Management (tasks, bounties, roles) (FSAPAHAD)

Keywords

• Decentralized autonomous organization
• Web3 grant funding
• Ethereum ecosystem grants
• DAO governance services
• Crypto venture funding

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

MetaCartel Ventures is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that deploys ETH-denominated grants to early-stage Web3 projects in exchange for those projects contributing back to the DAO's tooling and community. Funding members contribute ETH to acquire tiered DAO membership (Diamond, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper) granting proportional voting rights over grant allocation and treasury decisions.

Product overview

MetaCartel is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) functioning as a supportive ecosystem of creators and builders at the forefront of web3. Rather than a traditional product company, MetaCartel operates as a grant-giving DAO that funds web3 projects through its membership-based funding model. The ecosystem includes the MetaCartel DAO for governance, a grants program that has funded successful projects like Aave, Gelato, and Zapper, event properties like MCON (conference) and MetaCamp (unconference), Public Nouns (NFT offering), and Hydra DAO. Members can join through funding (providing ETH) or contributing work, gaining access to the community and voting power in the DAO.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• MetaCartel Grants Program ETH-denominated grant funding program that deploys DAO treasury capital to early-stage Web3 projects, protocols, and DAOs building on Ethereum and Gnosis Chain. Grant recipients have included Aave, Gelato, Zapper, MetaFactory, MetaGame, DAOhaus, and Raid Guild.
• Hydra DAO An open-source DAO framework developed by MetaCartel Ventures to enable other communities to launch and operate their own DAOs. Released as a public good with an associated whitepaper, extending MetaCartel's contribution beyond capital deployment into shared infrastructure.
• Public Nouns NFT offering distributed by MetaCartel Ventures as part of its public-facing community and brand presence.

Quantifiable outcome

• Grant from MetaCartel signals credibility to growing ecosystem that recipient has esteem and support of discerning community
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• DAOhaus: DAOhaus provides no-code DAO tooling and is itself a MetaCartel grant recipient operating its own treasury. It is comparable as DAO infrastructure that MetaCartel actively uses for governance (MetaCartel's DAO is hosted on DAOhaus), making it both a peer and a downstream ecosystem dependency.
• Raid Guild: Raid Guild is a service DAO of Web3 builders, originally funded by a MetaCartel grant. It is comparable as an ecosystem DAOs in MetaCartel's orbit with shared community and contributor overlap.

Direct peers

• Seed Club: Seed Club is a DAO accelerator that incubates and funds community-driven tokenized projects. It competes with MetaCartel Ventures for early-stage Web3 deals and shares the focus on community-led ventures and DAO formation.
• FlamingoDAO: FlamingoDAO is a member-owned DAO that pools ETH to invest in NFTs and digital assets. It is comparable to MetaCartel as a member-funded Ethereum investment DAO, though focused specifically on the NFT vertical rather than grants.
• JuiceboxDAO: Juicebox is a treasury and funding platform built on smart contracts that DAOs use to raise and manage ETH treasuries. It is comparable to MetaCartel as core DAO financial infrastructure and overlaps with Hydra DAO's treasury/governance ambitions.
• Gitcoin: Gitcoin runs quadratic funding grants for Web3 public goods and has become one of the largest grant-distribution platforms in the Ethereum ecosystem. It is directly comparable to MetaCartel as both direct ETH to ecosystem builders, though Gitcoin uses broader public matching pools.
• Octant: Octant is a DAO-funded platform that allocates ETH staking yield to public-goods grants. It is comparable to MetaCartel Ventures as a competing grants-distribution mechanism within the Ethereum public-goods funding ecosystem.
• MolochDAO: MolochDAO is one of the earliest Ethereum DAOs, structured to coordinate and fund Ethereum public-goods infrastructure. It overlaps with MetaCartel's public-goods grants mandate and shares the multi-sig governance and member-contribution model.
• The LAO: The LAO is a DAO focused on venture-style investments in the Ethereum ecosystem with a legally wrapped structure. It is directly comparable to MetaCartel Ventures as both pool ETH from members to fund Web3 projects, though The LAO takes equity/Tokens rather than giving grants.

Others

• Aave Companies: Aave is a DeFi lending protocol that originated as a MetaCartel grant recipient and has since become a category-defining protocol. It is comparable as a marquee alumni demonstrating MetaCartel's curation track record, though it is not a direct operational competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks2 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/meta_cartel
• GitHubgithub.com/metacartel
• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=N52L-yw5BHs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments42 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about MetaCartel Ventures