"Ex-TON Chair Launches $100M VC Firm for DeFi and PayFi on TON"

Former TON Foundation Chair Launches TVM Ventures, a $100 Million Venture Capital Firm

Steve Yun, the former president and current board member of TON Foundation, has launched TVM Ventures, a new venture capital firm with an inaugural $100 million fund. Yun and a Toncoin miner contributed to the fund's capital, with Yun declining to disclose the miner's identity or their specific contribution.

TVM Ventures takes its name from the TON Virtual Machine and focuses on funding startups within the TON ecosystem, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi) and payment finance (PayFi) verticals. Yun emphasized the importance of building natively on TON for DeFi projects and supporting the TON network for PayFi projects.

Yun stepped down as president of the TON Foundation last month but remains an active board member. He formally established TVM Ventures in November 2024 and began operations soon after. TVM Ventures follows the creation of another TON-focused VC firm, TON Ventures, founded last year by former TON Foundation members Ian Wittkopp and Inal Kardan with a $40 million inaugural fund.

TVM Ventures differs in its focus, prioritizing DeFi and PayFi verticals as it sees TON becoming the leading payment blockchain. Yun stated, "Our focus is to build an advanced and comprehensive financial system capable of meeting the financial needs of 500 million users in the next few years."

TVM Ventures targets seed-stage investments at valuations of $5 million to $10 million, taking a leading position with check sizes between $500,000 and $1 million. It also provides $5 million in "farming liquidity" to help protocols establish the minimum liquidity needed for their products to function. While its primary focus is early-stage investments, TVM may also invest smaller amounts in larger industry projects if they are strategic to building TON's ecosystem. The firm invests in both equity and tokens of projects and aims to deploy its full capital within 24 months.

So far, TVM Ventures has invested in four TON-based startups: Factorial, a Morpho-like modular lending platform on TON; Torch Finance, a stablecoin swap platform on TON; Fiva, a Pendle-like token