Is Web3’s Next Boom Coming from Africa, LATAM, and Asia? Lisk Bets $15 Million on It

Lisk has launched a $15 million venture initiative, the Lisk EMpower Fund, aimed at accelerating Web3 startups in Africa, Latin America (LATAM), and Southeast Asia.

The fund positions itself as a counterweight to the oversaturated Western venture scene, where valuations are at record highs and returns are increasingly muted.

Lisk’s $15 Million EMpower Fund Targets the Gaps Global VCs Miss

Lisk is betting that the world’s most transformative Web3 companies will emerge from frontier economies often dismissed by Silicon Valley.

The Lisk EMpower Fund will distribute up to $250,000 in capital per startup, while providing hands-on advisory covering regulatory compliance, tokenization, and fundraising strategies.

Early recipients include South Africa’s Lov.cash (digital supply chain), Afrikabal (agritech), Indonesia’s IDRX (stablecoin), and SigraFi (gold-backed lending).

Proof in action 👇The first 4 companies backed by the Lisk EMpower Fund:https://t.co/sTBXaeQt5m 🇿🇦 — digitizing supply chains between retailers and suppliers in South AfricaAfrikabal 🌍 — connecting smallholder farmers to buyers and investors across AfricaIDRX 🇮🇩 — a…

— Lisk (@LiskHQ) October 2, 2025

According to Gideon Greaves, Head of Investments at Lisk, the fund’s thesis is simple: where global VCs see risk, Lisk sees overlooked value.

“Founders in Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia are already proving they can build products with real adoption despite limited access to venture dollars,” Greaves told BeInCrypto.

A $5.2 Trillion Untapped Opportunity

Emerging markets represent an estimated $5.2 trillion untapped investment opportunity, with venture returns averaging 9–11% annually over the past 15 years. Yet, many founders in these regions bootstrap their way to Series A traction without institutional backing.

Greaves believes this necessity-driven entrepreneurship is often a better recipe for resilient founders.

“Someone who is emotionally attached to their product and views it as an extension of themselves,” he explained.

By entering only after startups demonstrate traction, Lisk reduces risk while embedding advisory to ensure companies graduate “Series A-ready.”

This means Lisk EMpower Fund recipients will receive advisory support on regulatory compliance, tokenization strategies, and fundraising preparation.

“The Lisk EMpower Fund gave us capital, credibility, and community, transforming Afrikabal from a local pilot into a global infrastructure contender,” Oghenetejiri Jesse, CEO of Afrikabal, said in an exclusive statement to BeInCrypto.

Greaves contrasted this approach with what he called the “parachute capital” often deployed by Western investors.

Bridging the Disconnect Between Risk and Value

For decades, Western VCs have viewed frontier markets as unstable and opaque. Lisk rejects that framing.

“Where Western VCs see ‘risk,’ we see mispriced opportunity. Emerging markets aren’t unstable — they’re undercapitalized, misunderstood, and scaling faster than the West,” Greaves said.

This positioning gives Lisk a dual advantage. On the one hand, founders get more than cash, while on the other, global investors receive vetted, de-risked deal flow.

With US seed-stage ventures facing near-zero three-year returns, the disconnect between capital supply and frontier demand is widening — a gap Lisk intends to fill.

“We’re not chasing hype. We’re unlocking overlooked value and bridging frontier markets with global capital,” Greaves added.

Tokenization and the Future of Venture

A distinguishing feature of the EMpower Fund is its tokenized structure for limited partner (LP) subscriptions. By digitizing LP shares, Lisk introduces liquidity into an asset class that traditionally locks capital for a decade.

“Tokenization doesn’t create new risk — it simply digitizes an old, clunky process. The token is tied directly to a real fund share, so it’s not speculative in nature. It’s just a better wrapper,” Greaves said.

The structure allows smaller investors to participate while enabling secondary market liquidity — a move Greaves says demonstrates credibility.

“If VCs truly believe in Web3, they should prove it by adopting it themselves.”

Impact as a Byproduct of Scale

Unlike many emerging market funds that pitch themselves on impact alone, Lisk insists its lens is business-first.

“In our markets, impact is the byproduct of success. A startup building blockchain-powered remittances is lowering costs for millions of unbanked families. A venture solving digital identity is expanding access to credit. These are disruptive businesses first, but their growth naturally delivers social benefit at scale,” Greaves said.

For him, the same transparency and trustless efficiency underpin blockchain also make local impact measurable and unavoidable.

The Next Wave of Unicorns

Lisk sees the greatest opportunities in financial infrastructure, digital identity, and supply chain visibility. Greaves pointed to mobile money’s $1.68 trillion volume in 2024, two-thirds of which came from Africa, as proof of how fast adoption can scale.

“Blockchain has the power to transform emerging markets into developed ones. If emerging markets are first to adopt on-chain infrastructure, they will lead the charge — while developed markets, distracted by speculation and short-term wins, will be forced to follow,” he concluded.

If Lisk’s thesis holds true, the next generation of Web3 unicorns will be minted not in Silicon Valley but across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, with the West struggling to catch up.