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Crypto BD leads: 11 names at 10 teams that raised in 2026

By NAUT Research · · 5 min read

11 Crypto BD leads BD and partnerships leads at 10 crypto teams with a 2026 round on NAUT. Logos: Felix Pago, Vest Exchange, P2P.me, Espresso Systems, InfiniFi, Katana Network, OKX, Zama, Backpack, Zignaly.

NAUT tracks 11 crypto BD leads who currently hold a business development or partnerships title at 10 crypto companies with a 2026 funding round on NAUT's record, read on 31 October 2026. Each of the 11 has a live NAUT people page, and NAUT holds 20 contact channels across them, from 1 channel each at Felix Pago, Vest Exchange, P2P.me and InfiniFi up to 3 each for the 2 at OKX.

How this list was built: on 31 October 2026 NAUT read every company with a funding round dated in 2026 on its own record, 288 of them, then kept the people whose current title on NAUT is head of BD, BD lead, BD director, business development, partnerships or a growth title that is clearly BD. That gave 17 people at 14 companies. 9 more candidates were dropped before this list: 6 rows carry a first name with no surname, 2 sit under a company row whose name and slug disagree, and 1 company has no live page. 6 of the 17 kept do not have a public NAUT people page yet, so they are not named here; they work at AlliumLabs, Gauntlet, Nara and Polysights, which leaves the 11 people at 10 companies below. Every title is the one the person holds at that company on NAUT today. Anyone listed can ask NAUT to remove their page at https://naut.so/legal/data-deletion.

Crypto BD leads: who runs business development at teams that raised in 2026?

These 11 people are ranked by the amount their company raised in its 2026 round on NAUT's record, largest first, then P2P.me, whose $6M is a minimum funding target, with the rounds that carry no amount at the end. The Ch column is how many contact channels NAUT holds for that person, never the values themselves.

Person Title, company 2026 round Ch
Head of BD, Head of Strategy, Debt Financing, $113M, 1 Sep 2026 1
Business Development, Seed, $13M, 7 Oct 2026 1
Director of Partnerships, IEO, $3.75M, 10 Feb 2026 2
Head of BD, Seed, $3M, 23 Sep 2026 1
Head of BD, IEO, $900K, 16 Mar 2026 2
BD, IDO, $6M target, 26 Mar 2026 1
BD Director, Undisclosed, no amount, 6 Oct 2026 3
BD Manager, Undisclosed, no amount, 6 Oct 2026 3
BD Manager, Strategic, no amount, 5 Aug 2026 2
Head of BD, IEO, amount left out, 17 Mar 2026 2
Director of Business Development, ICO, amount left out, 12 Jan 2026 2

2 amounts are left out on purpose. NAUT's data splits Backpack's 2026 raise across 3 separate IEO rows, each under $11,000, and Zama's across 7 rows dated in January 2026, so neither record gives 1 disclosed round size and this article quotes no figure for either. Both rounds themselves are on NAUT's record, and both teams still have a BD lead with a page.

Which crypto BD leads sit at the biggest 2026 rounds?

Ranked by the round amount on NAUT's record, Felix Pago's $113M is the largest and Katana Network's $900K the smallest of the 5 that carry an amount raised. P2P.me's $6M is the minimum funding target for its 26 March 2026 sale, so it sits below them. 4 of the 10 companies have a 2026 round on NAUT with no amount on it. The BD column counts the people above who have a NAUT page at that company.

Company Round Amount Date BD
Debt Financing $113M 1 Sep 2026 1
Seed $13M 7 Oct 2026 1
IEO $3.75M 10 Feb 2026 1
Seed $3M 23 Sep 2026 1
IEO $900K 16 Mar 2026 1
IDO $6M target 26 Mar 2026 1
Undisclosed none on record 6 Oct 2026 2
Strategic none on record 5 Aug 2026 1
IEO left out, 3 rows 17 Mar 2026 1
ICO left out, 7 rows 12 Jan 2026 1

4 of the 10 rounds have a source that confirms the amount, and 1 (P2P.me) a funding target, all listed at the end. Felix Pago's $113M is reported as a credit facility from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund in the Finovate story dated 1 September 2026; both the Finovate and Hoodline headlines carry a $200M figure, and NAUT's record holds $113M as Debt Financing. Vest Labs' $13M seed was "led by Portal Ventures" in the KuCoin flash dated 7 October 2026. InfiniFi's $3M seed was "led by Electric Capital, with participation from New Form Capital, Generative Ventures, Fasanara Capital, 2Square, 4th Revolution Capital, DCFGod, The Rollup, and others" in the KuCoin report dated 23 September 2026. For the remaining rounds, a backer is not on NAUT's record, so read the company pages for the current team and round rows.

How much did each of these teams raise in 2026?

2026 amount raised on NAUT's record, the 5 companies with a figure
  1. Felix Pago$113M
  2. Vest Exchange$13M
  3. Espresso Systems$3.75M
  4. InfiniFi$3M
  5. Katana Network$0.9M

Felix Pago's $113M is 85 percent of the $133.65M these 5 rounds add up to on NAUT's record. P2P.me is out of the chart because its $6M is a funding target, and the other 4 companies in the list, OKX, Zignaly, Backpack and Zama, are left out because their 2026 rows carry no single amount this article will quote.

What this tells a crypto BD team

  • A funded team with 1 BD person on file is the easiest door: 9 of the 10 companies here have exactly 1 of these crypto partnerships leads with a NAUT page, so there is 1 person to start with.
  • The 2 largest rounds, Felix Pago at $113M and Vest Exchange at $13M, each hold 1 channel for their BD lead, so the window to reach them is narrow and worth using early.
  • OKX is the only company here with 2 BD people and 3 channels each, 6 of the 20 channels in this list, which makes it the most reachable of the 10 on NAUT's record.
  • 5 of the 10 rounds are dated between 5 August and 7 October 2026, so the money raised in the last quarter is the live part of this list.
How a BD team can work these 11 crypto BD leads
  1. Start with the fresh moneyFelix Pago closed $113M on 1 September 2026 and Vest Exchange $13M on 7 October 2026.
  2. Open the person pageClaudia Garavini and Jhanly N. each hold 1 channel on NAUT, so use it once and make it count.
  3. Go wide where the channels areOKX has 2 BD people with 3 channels each, 6 of the 20 channels here.
  4. Pull the rest by call1 call returns a company's team, 5 credits, so a 10-company sweep costs 50.

What this tells a founder raising in 2026

  • 11 of the 17 BD people NAUT kept for this list have a public page on NAUT.
  • The round types here run from Seed at $3M to a $113M debt facility, which is the spread of what a 2026 crypto raise looks like on NAUT's record.
  • 9 candidates were dropped for a missing surname, a mismatched company row or a dead company slug, which is the kind of gap worth checking on your own NAUT page before an investor reads it.

How to reach these crypto BD leads on NAUT

Each name in the table links to that person's NAUT page, which shows their current title, the company, their coworkers and how many channels NAUT holds. That page is where the crypto business development contacts for these 10 teams live: channel values stay behind the page or behind a reveal in the API, so this article publishes counts only. Anyone selling to crypto startups that just raised can work the list in the order above, since it is ranked by the 2026 round size on NAUT's record. Any of the 11 people here can ask NAUT to remove their page at https://naut.so/legal/data-deletion.

Related reading on NAUT: Crypto lead generation: 21 funded teams, 15 CEOs to pitch and How to find decision makers in a company: 5 steps for crypto.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes. GET https://api.naut.so/v1/people?q=head of bd&contactType=team returns the people search behind this list, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/projects/felix-pago returns 1 company with its team, each at 5 credits with Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY. A person's private channels cost 10 credits the first time you reveal them with GET https://api.naut.so/v1/people/{id}?include=private, then 5. Endpoints and parameters are at https://naut.so/docs/api and plans start at $49 a month for 3,000 credits at https://naut.so/pricing. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for the people on NAUT unlock on any paid plan: start a 7-day trial.

Crypto BD leads FAQ

Who runs business development at crypto startups that raised in 2026?

NAUT's data shows 11 people with a live NAUT page who currently hold a BD or partnerships title at 10 companies with a 2026 round, read on 31 October 2026: Claudia Garavini at Felix Pago, Jhanly N. at Vest Exchange, Git Chad at P2P.me, Britt Madruga at Espresso Systems, Jeannice Tse at InfiniFi, Daniel Oon at Katana Network, Arik S. and Farah Aridi at OKX, Ehsan Sheikh at Zignaly, Joe Takayama at Backpack and Antoine H. at Zama.

Where can I find these crypto BD leads and their contact channels?

On NAUT: each of the 11 names above links to its NAUT people page, which carries the person's current title and their channels, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/people?q=head of bd&contactType=team returns the same search at 5 credits a call, with a private-channel reveal at 10 credits the first time.

Which of these 2026 rounds was the largest?

Felix Pago's $113M Debt Financing round dated 1 September 2026 is the largest of the 5 that carry an amount raised on NAUT's record, ahead of Vest Exchange's $13M Seed on 7 October 2026 and Espresso Systems's $3.75M IEO on 10 February 2026. P2P.me's $6M is a minimum funding target, so it is not ranked.

How many contact channels does NAUT hold for these 11 people?

20 channels in total as of 31 October 2026, ranging from 1 each for the leads at Felix Pago, Vest Exchange, P2P.me and InfiniFi to 3 each for the 2 BD people at OKX.

Why are 6 BD people left out of the list?

6 of the 17 people NAUT kept, at AlliumLabs, Gauntlet, Nara and Polysights, do not have a public NAUT people page yet, so this list names only the 11 who can be linked. A further 9 candidates were dropped before that for a missing surname, a company row whose name and slug disagree, or a company with no live page.

Sources

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