fomo: Why did Benchmark place a bet? An investigation into the "cross-chain super application" experiment supported by 40 investors

Author: momo, ChainCatcher

Recently, the Solana ecosystem cross-chain application fomo completed a $17 million Series A funding round led by Benchmark. Combined with the $200,000 angel round financing completed in February, it has raised a total of $19 million.

Interestingly, in addition to receiving investment from the traditionally cautious Benchmark in the crypto investment space, it also attracted over 140 industry leaders to become investors, including Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, and former Coinbase CTO and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan.

fomo was launched in May this year, positioning itself as a "super app" that integrates all crypto assets, and achieved a turning point in user growth by integrating Apple Pay as a key decision. Public data shows that its daily trading volume has reached tens of millions of dollars in a short period.

How did fomo achieve alternative financing? What is its vision? What is the data situation? Here is a brief overview.

Alternative Financing: Proactively BD with 200 Investors

fomo's inception stemmed from a carefully designed financing strategy. Co-founders Paul Erlanger and Se Yong Park did not follow the common seed round financing process for startups, but instead drafted a "dream angel investor" list that included 200 industry veterans.

It is reported that both investors had previously worked at dYdX, and leveraging their past experience in the crypto industry, they primarily obtained referrals through their existing networks and directly communicated with some targets.

Ultimately, as many as 140 individuals from the list decided to invest, including influential figures in the industry such as Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron and Solana co-founder Raj Gokal.

The effectiveness of this strategy exceeded mere fundraising: it quickly built a high-quality credibility endorsement and resource network for fomo, ultimately becoming a bridge for attracting institutional capital. Benchmark's early investor Chetan Puttagunta revealed that it was through simultaneous referrals from three different angels that he began to pay attention to this project.

Vision: Creating a "Super App" for Frictionless Cross-Chain Trading

On the product level, fomo's concept is to become a "super app" that allows users to trade any crypto asset on any blockchain without friction. Its long-term vision even includes supporting a broader range of asset classes in the future, such as prediction markets and bonds.

At this stage, its core product features include support for various assets from mainstream coins to various meme coins, built-in social features to follow others' trading dynamics, and a commitment that users do not need to pay blockchain network gas fees, with its revenue coming from a 0.50% trading fee.

What truly changed fomo's growth trajectory was the addition of Apple Pay support one month after launch. This feature simplified the fiat deposit process, transforming complex on-chain operations into a mobile payment experience familiar to users.

Founder Paul Erlanger stated that after the launch of this feature, they "saw a huge influx of users and revenue," with weekly revenue instantly reaching about $150,000 and daily trading volume soaring to $3 million. This indicates that lowering the technical barrier and enhancing usability are key driving factors for initially achieving product-market fit.

Paul Erlanger also disclosed in a recent financing document that after the funding round ended in September, their total user count exceeded 120,000, with daily trading volume further increasing to a range of $20 million to $40 million, and daily revenue stabilizing at around $150,000.

Conclusion

Despite significant initial growth, fomo's future still faces a series of challenges that need to be observed. First, the inherent high volatility of the crypto asset market may continuously impact the stability of its business. Second, its ambitious goal of "full-chain coverage and everything can be traded" presents extremely high complexity in technical implementation and asset operation management, and the project team has stated that they are still in the process of advancing toward this goal. Finally, as the user base and trading volume expand, how to cope with the increasingly complex regulatory environment globally, as well as how to ensure asset security and improve risk control systems, will be unavoidable issues.

The case of fomo demonstrates a path in the crypto space that combines strategic financing and extreme user experience design to achieve rapid launch. Its initial success confirms the potential of simplifying user experience to drive crypto applications toward a broader audience. However, its long-term value and the sustainability of its model still need to be continuously tested in the fluctuating market cycles, technical challenges, and regulatory evolution.