Lisk Sets Up $15M EMpower Fund for Web3 Startups in Emerging Markets

When you think of the next billion-dollar Web3 startup, you probably imagine it coming from Silicon Valley or Singapore. Lisk, a blockchain application platform, is betting otherwise. The company has set up a $15 million EMpower Fund aimed at discovering and nurturing Web3 startups across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

The goal is straightforward: identify early founders solving pressing problems in frontier economies and give them the capital, mentorship, and infrastructure support needed to scale into unicorns.

A $5.2 Trillion Opportunity

Emerging markets are home to some of the most acute challenges in financial access, payments, and supply chains. They are also the fastest-growing adoption zones for digital assets. Yet these regions remain underfunded by traditional venture capital.

Lisk believes the gap represents a $5.2 trillion untapped market. By putting relatively small amounts of early capital up to $250,000 per startup into local founders, the fund hopes to catalyze solutions that might not just work in one country but scale across multiple markets facing similar structural issues.

What the Fund Covers

The EMpower Fund is not just about writing cheques. Lisk is packaging investments with regulatory guidance, tokenomics design, technical support, and introductions to later-stage capital. This matters because founders in emerging markets often face barriers beyond product building: compliance costs, lack of legal clarity, and weak venture ecosystems.

Early recipients of support include:

• Lov.cash (South Africa) – tackling digital supply chain challenges.

• Afrikabal – connecting smallholder farmers with buyers and investors.

• IDRX (Indonesia) – building stablecoin infrastructure.

• SigraFi – experimenting with gold-backed lending.

These examples reflect the type of projects the fund is looking for: not speculative trading platforms, but tools rooted in everyday needs such as payments, lending, and supply chain transparency.

Why Emerging Markets Are the Bet

The logic behind the fund is simple. Inflation, weak banking systems, and the high cost of remittances push people to adopt alternatives faster than in developed economies. In countries where millions remain unbanked, a stablecoin wallet can leapfrog traditional banking. For farmers, a blockchain-based system can cut out exploitative middlemen and ensure fairer pricing.

This is why adoption curves for crypto wallets, stablecoins, and decentralized finance (DeFi) tools are steepest in places like Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, and Indonesia. The infrastructure may be patchy, but the demand is real.

The Unicorn Question

Can a $15 million fund really produce unicorns? On its own, no. The ticket sizes are designed for early-stage support, not billion-dollar scaling. But Lisk’s model is about seeding the ecosystem, de-risking founders early, and preparing them for larger follow-on capital from global funds.

If even one or two startups from the EMpower portfolio break through to multi-country scale, they could define what a Web3 unicorn from the Global South looks like.

For all its potential, the road is not without obstacles. Regulatory environments in Africa and Latin America are inconsistent and can shift quickly. Talent and infrastructure gaps remain. And without sustainable business models, many Web3 experiments will struggle to survive past the hype phase.

Still, Lisk’s initiative is a signal that serious blockchain players are beginning to look where others haven’t. Unicorns may not emerge overnight, but the foundation for a new wave of Web3 innovation in frontier markets is being laid.