Editor's note: In our 2023 Startups to Watch feature, the Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times present startups and founders doing unique things in the Bay Area. Fimio is one of 15 we profiled this year — to read more about our mission and the other startups we're featuring, click here.
For a community proclaiming to build trustless ecosystems of finance, the crypto industry has had quite a few scurrilous players who've managed to scam, steal or negligently mishandle billions in customer funds. Fimio Inc. is taking on the herculean task of bringing some trust into the trustless world of crypto and Web3. The pre-product company has received backing by major crypto VCs to develop tools for people building on Web3 that can prevent fraud and bring a bit of order to the largely untamed ecosystem.
- Founded: 2022
- Founders: Omoju Miller, founder and CEO
- What it does: Developing software to detect fraud for Web3 builders
- HQ: Oakland
- Employees: Currently a small team
- Total funding: $2.195 million
Describe what your company does to someone from Mars? We provide a reputation mechanism for Web3. Our business focuses on the developers in the space by giving them tools they can use to build their products in a trust-enhancing manner.
How do you plan to weather tough economic conditions and lack of available VC funding? We are thankful to be in a place where we have raised a round that puts us in a comfortable position. Furthermore, we are a team that has built capacity to ship fast. This allows us to go to market fast and prove our value. We believe that we are solving a very important problem and even in spite of tough economic conditions, the marketplace will reward us for adding value.
How do you plan to scale your business? Our initial launch will be on the Ethereum blockchain. And from there, we plan on expanding our surface area to all the other blockchains in Web3. Ultimately, we want the Fimio API to be between every transaction on every blockchain. Our goal is to build the trust layer at the metaverse level, which means an integrated view of all chains.
Are you already planning an exit strategy? Ha, ha, ha! No, we are not thinking about an exit strategy yet. Our goal is to bring trust to the trustless web and that is an audacious goal which we know could take years to achieve.
In office, fully remote, hybrid: which is the best way for you and your team to work? We are a hybrid company, coming together in office once a week. For us, having one day together allows us to have deep collaboration on key items, but we recognize that much of our best work is done asynchronously. We support our teams to do the work they’re doing in the way that best works for them.
