Lightspeed Venture launches a Blockchain-focused team, Multicoin Capital raises $ 430 million

The ongoing crypto winter has so far been unsettling for investors, but for true supporters of the new technology, it seems time to double the effort on projects with high potential. Fintech-focused US VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners announced the launch of a new blockchain-focused team – Lightspeed Fraction – to invest in early-stage blockchain projects.

A new team for crypto investments

The news comes with Lightspeed Venture Partners unveiling three new US funds totaling $ 6.6 billion and a $ 500 million fund focused on early-stage Indian startups. Currently, the VC firm has assets worth $ 18 billion under management.

The decision to invest heavily in blockchain companies is in line with the investment thesis that technology “changes how network participants are incentivized, how start-ups in this ecosystem are funded, and how communities can pool their shared power to create change,” the firm said.

VC started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2013, and considered digital assets as a key technology that offers unique opportunities for “underbanked” or unbanked population worldwide. Lightspeeds partner Ravi Mhatre stated:

“We believe that the industry is still early in the transition from web2 to web3, and the collaboration between Lightspeed and Faction is proof of our common belief in how cryptocurrency can help develop a network that better serves underserved people around the world. ”

Collection in the middle of the bear market

On the same day, crypto-focused VC Multicoin Capital also said it had raised $ 430 million for its third blockchain startup fund. The amount has jumped 4.3 times from the $ 100 million it raised to its second fund.

The company began raising the fund in the fourth quarter of last year and closed it in January this year, according to a media report. Furthermore, early-stage companies are expected to receive $ 500,000 to $ 25 million, and later-stage projects will receive $ 100 million or more.

It is worth mentioning that Multicoin Capital’s co – founders, Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain, are the fund’s largest limited partners. Samani noted that the current bear market does not change the company’s strategy of investing aggressively in Web3 and blockchain companies.

As for the troubled company 3AC, which has a stake in one of Multicoin Capital’s funds, which makes people wonder if such exposure could cause financial stress for the investment, Samani emphasized that it had “absolutely no impact” on MC.