$4M Seed Round for RWA Leverage Protocol

3F Labs closed a $4 million seed round on April 23, 2026. Combined with an earlier $750,000 angel round from November 2025, the project has raised $4.75 million total. Founded by Sonya Kim, 3F builds vaults on Morpho that give users one-click leveraged exposure to tokenized real-world assets like AAA-rated CLOs.

The funding comes as tokenized assets gain traction in DeFi. 3F tackles a specific pain point: building leveraged positions on RWAs is tedious. Normally, you'd "loop" through multiple borrow-and-deposit cycles, waiting for T+1 settlement each time. That can take days. 3F handles the short-term bridge financing and completes positions within a single settlement cycle.

The first supported asset is JAAA, a tokenized CLO fund from Anemoy that's sub-managed by Janus Henderson and tokenized through Centrifuge. Revenue will come from management fees on deployed capital and performance fees on leveraged returns. The team currently has six people and plans to hire for credit underwriting, engineering, and security.

| Field | Details | |----------------------|--------------------------------------| | Project | 3F Labs | | Sector/Category | DeFi, Real-World Assets (RWA), Lending & Borrowing | | Funding Round | Seed (including prior $750K pre-seed) | | Amount Raised | $4,000,000 | | Valuation | Undisclosed | | Lead Investor | Maven 11 Capital | | Notable Participants| F-Prime Capital, Metalayer Ventures, GSR, Susquehanna Crypto, Gate Ventures, Pivot Global, Komorebi Collective, Serotonin, Nick van Eck, Felix Lutsch | | Announcement Date | April 23, 2026 | | Disclosure Gaps | Valuation and exact tokenomics not specified |

The round used SAFEs with token warrants on a 1:1 basis. Pre-seed investors included Steakhouse Financial, Sky co-founder Rune Christensen, and Phoenix Labs co-founder Sam MacPherson. Mathijs van Esch from Maven 11 joined as a board observer. The money will fund development through a private beta opening this week and a full launch in Q2 2026.

3F estimates leveraged yields of 10-14% at 3-5x leverage for assets like fixed-income funds yielding 6% with 4% financing costs. The math works until it doesn't: risks include yield spreads compressing, settlement delays, smart contract bugs, and credit events in the underlying assets. The protocol will offer permissioned liquidity options to attract institutions alongside retail depositors.

• Investor mix: Maven 11 led the seed. Pre-seed backers included RWA-focused investors like Steakhouse Financial.
• Use of funds: Product development, including CLO vaults, with emphasis on operational efficiency.
• Why now: Tokenized asset volumes are growing, but manual looping on Morpho has limited retail participation.
• Team growth: Hiring planned for credit and security roles as regulatory attention on RWAs increases.

3F is trying to make leveraged RWA positions accessible to people who don't want to spend days clicking through loops. Whether that's a large market remains to be seen. The protocol competes in a space where Aave and Morpho already dominate lending, though neither offers this specific automation.

The angel round included DeFi Dad, Jason Yanowitz, and Rune Christensen. No token details have been disclosed yet. The raise suggests continued investor interest in RWA infrastructure, particularly as traditional asset managers like Janus Henderson start working with blockchain platforms.

Bottom line: The $4M raise shows investors are betting that automated leverage will unlock more demand for tokenized RWAs. The beta starting this week will be the first real test.