Nathaniel Thompson

Draper Goren Blockchain ( @DGBVentures ) just opened its second office in Troy, Michigan. First office outside of LA and a strategic move into the mortgage capital of the country. Draper Goren Blockchain's new office at 3221 W. Big Beaver Road will serve as a strategic hub for incubating and accelerating portfolio companies, with a focus on real estate technology startups. The office will be led by founding partner @Bleznak, who was born and raised in the area, and will house DGB's expanding team of six employees while serving as a meeting space and coworking environment for Michigan-based portfolio companies. The expansion comes on the heels of exceptional performance from the firm's PropTech portfolio companies, including Troy-headquartered mortgage broker @LitFinancial_ and Birmingham-based AIVRE, an AI-powered appraisal software platform. Detroit's PropTech ecosystem is thriving. Rocket Companies anchors the market. The talent is there. The opportunity is massive. Founded in 2023 by @TimDraper, @AlonGoren, and David Bleznak, Draper Goren Blockchain started as a blockchain venture studio. The firm makes regular investments, averaging about one new portfolio company a month, while also doubling up on growing teams and continually investing in them. That's the venture studio model: Invest. Incubate. Accelerate. Support relentlessly.

LitFinancial, a U.S. mortgage lender pioneering a stablecoin-powered mortgage model, is adopting the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard on Ethereum to make litUSD natively transferable across blockchains via CCIP. By adopting the Chainlink interoperability standard, @LitFinancial_ is unlocking RWA innovation & enabling a more efficient capital model for mortgage lending.