Lightning Ventures

Lightning Ventures is a New York City-based venture capital firm founded in 2021, exclusively focused on Bitcoin and Lightning Network companies. Co-founders include Michael Jarmuz ('Muzz'), who has made over 2,000 personal angel investments with a passion for democratizing retail access to private markets, alongside CTO Uncle 'Rockstar' Dev (formerly of Strike and a major BTCPay Server contributor) and COO Vivek Patel (formerly PrimeTrust, active Bitcoin angel investor). The firm's pilot fund, Node 1, along with its investment syndicate, has deployed over $10 million into 40-plus Bitcoin and adjacent companies. Lightning Ventures invests at pre-seed and seed stages with an average check size of approximately $250,000. The portfolio of 29-plus named companies includes Strike (Bitcoin payments, raised $80 million), Swan Bitcoin, Unchained Capital, Jan3 (most recent investment, Seed in January 2025), Relai, Azteco, CoinCorner, Breez, THNDR Games, Start9, Bitnob, Wavlake, and Ibex. The fund spans software, hardware, mining, and energy companies within the Bitcoin ecosystem, with a geographic reach extending from the United States and Europe to Latin America and Africa. One portfolio exit has been recorded: Slice in October 2025. The firm also launched Thunder Funder, a Regulation CF portal enabling retail investors to invest in open-source and Bitcoin startups for the first time. Lightning Ventures operates with a Bitcoin-only ethos, believing Bitcoin is the global monetary asset of the future. The firm's deal-by-deal syndicate model with low minimum investments is designed to enable diverse investor participation, reflecting the community values embedded in the Bitcoin ecosystem itself. The fund's tight alignment with protocol developers — Rockstar Dev's BTCPay Server contributions being a prime example — gives it proprietary access to technical founders building core Bitcoin infrastructure.