Electric Capital Secures $1 Billion to Invest in Early-Stage Crypto Projects
Blockchain venture firm Electric Capital has raised $1 billion to back seed and early-stage startups in the crypto industry.
Electric Raises $1B to Invest in Crypto Startups
According to a Tuesday report by Forbes, the latest capital raise comprises a $400 million equity fund closed last year, and a $600 million token fund closed last month.
Co-founded in 2018 by Avichal Garg and Curtis Spencer, the Silicon Valley-based VC aims to support crypto, fintech, and blockchain-focused projects with early-stage venture capital.
Commenting on the latest raise, the co-founders noted that Electric Capital has been actively involved in the Web3 movement and is poised to provide project developers with the support and resources they need to push their projects to the center stage.
“We have spent the last four years building software and data systems that enable us to participate in Web3 ecosystems… We look forward to continuing to push the frontier of how investors and protocols can create value together,” says Spencer.
Consisting mainly of engineers, the Electric Capital team brings a wealth of experience in decentralized governance, tokenomics, community building, and more. All of this gives them the capacity to understand better and support Electric’s portfolio companies with their technical undertakings.
“Founders in Web3 need crypto-native investors who understand the unique support that protocols and Web3 companies require through the inevitable crypto cycles,” Garg added.
The company noted that it intends to make both equity and token investments of between $1 million to $20 million, with a wide-ranging focus on NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and blockchain infrastructure.
Not Investing Directly in Crypto Yet
While Electric plans to explore the NFT marketplace, the VC noted that it currently has no plans to directly invest in digital arts and other collectibles. Rather, it intends to make bets on NFT marketplaces and other projects that allow investors to use their digital collections as collateral.
Electric Capital has made notable investments in some of the top projects in the crypto industry, including the Ethereum-based NEAR protocol and the derivatives trading application, dYdX.
Meanwhile, venture capital firms are becoming increasingly interested in the crypto space as the market continues to grow. Just a few weeks ago, Sequoia Capital unveiled a $600 million fund to invest in liquid tokens and digital assets.
OhNoRipple via https://www.ohnocrypto.com/ @Mandy Williams, @Khareem Sudlow