TVM Ventures Launch

Steve Yun, 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. However, Yun declined to disclose the miner’s identity or their specific contribution, as he told The Block.

TVM Ventures is named after the TON Virtual Machine and focuses on funding startups within the TON ecosystem, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi) and payment finance (PayFi) verticals.

> “Regarding DeFi, it will be imperative to build natively on TON, including the smart contract logic written on TVM directly,” Yun said. “PayFi is cross-chain by nature and therefore more flexible, but 100% must support TON network.”

TVM Ventures Fund I

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.

According to Yun, TVM Ventures differs in 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.”

Backing Early-Stage Startups

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 for their products.

While its primary focus is early-stage investments, TVM may also invest smaller amounts in larger industry projects that are strategic to building TON’s ecosystem. The firm invests in both equity and tokens of projects, aiming to deploy its full capital within 24 months.

So far, TVM Ventures has invested in four TON-based startups:
– Factorial: A modular lending platform on TON.
– Torch Finance: A stablecoin swap platform on TON.
– Fiva: A tokenized yield platform on TON.
– Memes Lab: A memepad on TON/Telegram for buying memecoins with Telegram Stars.

TON’s Growth Outlook

TON’s app ecosystem and total value locked have yet to gain significant traction. However, Yun expects major growth by Q2 2025 with the launch of the tgBTC bridge and a DeFi incentive initiative from the TON Foundation. He predicts that TON will capture a significant share of the stablecoin market within the next few years, estimating it will take 24 months to attract Tron-USDT users and 48 months for ETH-USDT users.

Yun anticipates that the TON ecosystem will grow significantly over the next three to five years. He expects the Telegram Wallet to open to U.S. users with an interface that aggregates multiple services, and foresees the TON Foundation becoming more independent and efficient, leading to “high-impact deals” that strengthen the ecosystem. He predicts that Toncoin, currently trading at around $4 with a market capitalization of nearly $10 billion, could surpass $40 in the next bull cycle, representing a 900% increase.

TVM Ventures is based in Dubai, and Yun plans to hire researchers specializing in TVM architecture, on-chain analytics, and FunC and Tolk, TON’s smart contract languages.

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