The "Super Angels"Balaji, Naval, Stani, and Santiago are often first to the narrative before it hits the mainstream. Here are the recent rounds they’ve backed in late 2025.

1. Balaji Srinivasan ➔ Backing Privacy & Hard Tech

Project: 0xbow (Nov/Dec 2025)

Sector: Privacy / Compliance

  • The Alpha: Raised $3.5M. Balaji (along with others) is betting on "compliant privacy." 0xbow is building privacy pools that allow users to prove their funds aren't illicit without revealing their entire transaction history a critical piece of infrastructure for institutional DeFi adoption.

  • Other Bets: Balaji also dropped a check into Reason Robotics (Hardware) in early December, signaling his continued thesis on "The Network State" needing physical infrastructure.

2. Naval Ravikant ➔ The Financial Stack

Project: Quanta (Dec 2025)

Sector: Financial Software / DeFi

  • The Alpha: Naval participated in this round just weeks ago. While details are still emerging, Quanta plays into the "fintech meets crypto" thesis, likely aiming to abstract away the complexity of on-chain finance for everyday users.

  • Why it matters: Naval rarely misses on infrastructure that simplifies user experience (e.g., his early bets on Uber, Notion).

3. Santiago R. Santos ➔ AI x Crypto Security

Project: Testmachine (Dec 2025)

Sector: AI / DApp Security

  • The Alpha: Raised $6.5M. As AI agents begin transacting on-chain, security is the new bottleneck. Testmachine uses AI to audit and secure other AI agents and smart contracts.

  • Trend: Santiago is heavily rotating into the "Agent Economy"infrastructure that allows AI to hold wallets and execute complex DeFi strategies.

4. Stani Kulechov ➔ Emerging Markets

Project: Lemon Cash (Oct/Nov 2025)

Sector: Fintech / Payments

  • The Alpha: A $20M Series B. Stani (founder of Aave) is doubling down on Latin American crypto adoption. Lemon Cash is one of the biggest gateways for crypto-fiat bridges in Argentina and Brazil.

  • The Signal: DeFi is moving from "speculation" to "survival" rails in high-inflation economies.

5. Institutional "Angel" Activity (a16z)

Project: Mirelo (Dec 2025)

Sector: AI / Audio

  • The Alpha: A massive $41M Seed round. While primarily AI, the backing by a16z crypto heavyweights suggests a future intersection with on-chain media attribution and royalty tracking.

The Takeaway for 2026:

The top angels are not buying meme coins. They are aggressively funding:

  1. Privacy that regulators can tolerate (0xbow).

  2. Security for AI Agents (Testmachine).

  3. Real-world utility in emerging markets (Lemon Cash).

#SmartMoney #CryptoVC #AIxCrypto #DeFiAlpha #rsshanto