Two established investors are feeling crypto FOMO. Index and Union Square Ventures have backed the crypto startup Fomo, named after the acronym for “fear of missing out,” the company announced on Monday. Index Ventures led the $75 million Series B fundraise, which valued Fomo at $550 million. Other participants include Zygna cofounder Mark Pincus, Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini, and Eventbrite cofounder Kevin Hartz.
“We’re not doing Fomo because it’s a crypto business,” Julia Andre, a partner at Index Ventures, told me. “We’re doing Fomo because we think there is a market shift there, and they have what it takes to capture this next wave of consumer blockchain trading.”
The fear of missing out often pushes traders to pile into buzzy memecoins or the newest, hottest token. And it’s a phenomenon Fomo cofounders Paul Erlanger, Se Yong Park, and Prashan Dharmasena saw firsthand while working at the crypto trading platform dYdX.
The trio also witnessed how difficult trading digital assets can be. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies, countless blockchains, arcane fees to pay for swapping tokens, and complicated onboarding processes. “Onchain trading is just impossible,” Erlanger told me.
So, in 2025, they set out to create an online and mobile app that simplified the experience. “Someone should be able to onboard into Fomo, fund their account, and buy a token within like 30 seconds, regardless of if they’re familiar with crypto or not,” Dharmasena said.
Their startup’s name is short for “fearless,” not fear, of missing out, said Erlanger. “The goal on Fomo is that you never miss out again,” he added. To that end, Fomo has a leaderboard that shows the top traders, a feed that shows users’ latest trades, and the ability to share your trading history on social media.
But Fomo isn’t meant to be a platform for only cryptocurrencies, said Erlanger. He believes the app can be a broader gateway to finance as companies put stocks, derivatives, and a whole host of assets on the blockchain. In June, Fomo listed perpetuals, a type of futures contract with no expiration date. “The goal is for it not to be seen as a crypto app,” Erlanger said.
Fomo lists more assets than Coinbase, is available globally, and is onboarding around 3,500 new users per day, said Park. While the startup only has 17 employees, it plans to use its new injection of capital to hire more engineers—and maybe even acquire smaller companies. “The goal is,” proclaimed Erlanger, “to be the largest trading app in the world.”
See you tomorrow,
