New SVM Layer 1 blockchain project Fogo raised $8 million in “under two hours” on Thursday via Cobie’s Echo platform at a $100 million token valuation, co-founder Robert Sagurton told The Block.
Last month, Fogo raised $5.5 million in a seed round at the same valuation, which is also being disclosed today, Sagurton said. Fogo Foundation, the core contributor to the Fogo Chain — a new Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)-based Layer 1 blockchain — raised $8 million via Echo, the angel investor platform founded by popular crypto trader Jordan Fish, better known as Cobie.
Fogo raised the amount in "just under 2 hours" late Thursday, co-founder Robert Sagurton, a former Jump Crypto executive, told The Block.
A total of four Echo groups participated in the round: The Echonomist, led by Cobie, which invested $6 million; 4 Ventures by CMS Holdings, which invested $1 million; Big Brain Collective, led by The Block CEO Larry Cermak, which invested $500,000; and Patrons, led by Synthetix and Infinex founder Kain Warwick, which also invested $500,000, Sagurton said.
The Echo round was structured as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) and conducted at a $100 million fully diluted token valuation — the same structure and valuation as the $5.5 million seed round last month, which is being disclosed today, Sagurton said. The seed round was led by Distributed Global, which invested $5 million, with participation from CMS Holdings, which contributed $500,000, Sagurton added.
With the Echo round, Fogo now has over 3,000 angel investors on its cap table. Cobie told The Block that Fogo is an "interesting" project and described the round as a unique deal on his platform.
"Fogo is interesting because the community, via Echo, actually owns more % supply of Fogo than VCs do. That hasn't happened before in a deal led by me at least. But it is a nice trend to be observing. Decentralized, community systems require a more user-owned fundraising model and I am happy that the Echo experiment is playing a small part, said Cobie. Have a nice weekend, he added, before throwing in some unsolicited advice on TV shows.
