Crypto-focused Multicoin Capital launches $ 430 million venture fund – TechCrunch

The crypto-native venture capital firm Multicoin Capital announced a new fund, the third and largest to date of $ 430 million.

“As stated in our first and second venture funds, some of the best opportunities in the bear markets are emerging,” Tushar Jain, co-founder and CEO of Multicoin Capital, told TechCrunch. “Valuations are more sensible; the founders are more focused, long-term and motivated; and real users are exploring projects they are really passionate about. “

It plans to invest anywhere between $ 500,000 to $ 25 million in early-stage projects and up to $ 100 million for later stages.

“Although this is our largest venture fund, we deliberately raised this amount to let us do what we do best, which is to invest with high conviction, in a practical way, in the earliest stages,” Jain said. “Larger funds require more agreements or larger check sizes. We find that we have the greatest effect when we can dedicate real time and thought to projects as partners in the beginning. “

The company was founded in May 2017 and has invested in cryptocurrencies, tokens and blockchain companies while managing a venture and hedge fund across both public and private markets. The portfolio companies include layer-1 blockchains Ethereum and Solana and the second largest crypto exchange globally, including FTX.

“After nearly a decade of infrastructure development, crypto is finally moving up the stack,” Kyle Samani, co-founder and CEO of Multicoin Capital, told TechCrunch. “It is now possible to compose applications with multiple protocols and build consumer experiences.”

These applications require elegant key management solutions, entrances and exits, known data structures, fast response times, searches and much more, Samani said. “But these primitives are finally here, and we are happy to distribute capital to the first movements that use them to cross the abyss.”

The new fund will focus on a handful of areas in the crypto ecosystem, including web3 infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized autonomous organization tools (DAO) and new business models for collaborating on intellectual property, to name a few.

While there has been great growth in both the Defi and DAO areas in recent years, the market has cooled down, although Multicoin Capital believes it will continue to spread in the long term.

“In addition to the maturity of infrastructure, crypto has captured the imagination of the public,” Samani said. “NFTs are now mainstream culture and all brands and social apps are trying to figure out what their crypto strategy is. At the same time, creators see crypto as a better, more direct way to engage fans and make money in a customized way. The culmination of these forces make areas such as revenue generation for creators, DAO tools and new crypto-enabled IP models very attractive. “