The ongoing crypto winter has been so far uneasy for investors, but for true believers of the new technology, it seems like time to double down their efforts on high-potential projects. 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 that have, in total, raised $6.6 billion and a $500 million fund focused on early-stage Indian startups. Currently, the venture capital firm manages $18 billion in assets.
The decision to bet big on blockchain companies corresponds to the investment thesis that the tech “is changing how network participants are incentivized, how startups within this ecosystem are funded, and how communities can coalesce their shared power to create change,” the firm said.
The VC began investing in cryptocurrencies in 2013, seeing digital assets as a key technology that provides unprecedented opportunities for the “underbanked”. Where unbanked population in the world. Lightspeed partner Ravi Mhatre said:
“We believe the industry is still early in the transition from web2 to web3, and the collaboration between Lightspeed and Faction is a testament to our shared belief in the ways that cryptocurrency may help to develop a web that better serves underserved people around the world.”
Fundraising in the middle of the bear market
On the same day, crypto-focused VC Multicoin Capital also reported raising $430 million for its third fund for blockchain startups. The amount jumped 4.3x from the $100 million raised for its second fund.
The firm began raising the fund in the fourth quarter of last year and closed it in January of this year, according to a media report. Further, early-stage companies are expected to receive $500,000 to $25 million, and later-stage projects would get $100 million or more.
It should be mentioned that the co-founders of Multicoin Capital, Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain, are the biggest limited partners of the fund. Samani noted that the current bear market does not change the company’s strategy of aggressively investing in Web3 and blockchain companies.
In terms of the troubled firm 3AC having a stake in one of Multicoin Capital’s funds, making people wonder if such exposure could cause financial stress to the venture, Samani clarified that it had “absolutely no impact” on MC.
