Blockchain Capital Seals Second Startup Fund after Raising $13 Million
Venture capital firm Blockchain Capital has announced the closure of its second fund used for investments in bitcoin- and blockchain-companies after fundraising $13 million in total.
Blockchain Capital , a venture capital firm that set the precedent as the first investment fund for the digital currency industry has sealed its second startup fund for $13 million.
A press release revealed that the second fund has already been used for investments in 2015, with a total of 23 bitcoin and blockchain technology companies invested into.
In a statement, managing partner and co-founder Brad Stephens stated:
We are excited to announce the closing of our second fund so that we can continue to support world-class entrepreneurs who are leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt legacy industries and create new products and services around the world.
The investor also announced the formation of an Angel List syndicate that invests in tandem with the second fund. The syndicate is formed in partnership with Flight Ventures, a platform that has seen investment in companies like PayPal and LinkedIn.
Together, the Blockchain Capital@ Flight.vc partnership claims to become the first specific sector focused VC firm that invests exclusively in the bitcoin ecosystem and blockchain-based companies.
“The pace of innovation we are seeing in Fintech, in general, and Blockchain technology, in particular, is staggering,” Stephens added.
The second and now-sealed fund had an original target of $10 million and was oversubscribed, according to Forbes . Speaking to the publication, co-founder and managing partner Brock Pierce sees blockchain technology scaling beyond the financial sector with the new investments coming from the second fund.
This is definitely going to be the first breakout year where you see substantial investment in blockchain technology outside of financial services, even including Bitcoin.
He also stated that the legal services industry and the music industry where royalties paid toward artists tend to bring debate as opportunities where distributed ledger technology, or blockchain-tech will prove to be effective.
The Angel List ‘syndicate’ will also bring opportunities to individual accredited investors looking to invest in smaller sums of money compared to the millions usually spent by big firms.
In the same way that Bitcoin is democratizing the global financial system, these crowdfunding platforms are democratizing the world of early-stage financing, and philosophically, we believe they’re in direct alignment.
Stephens also sees a future with multiple blockchains involving banks but points out that the Bitcoin blockchain is the most robust among them all. He further adds that the Bitcoin blockchain is where most of their investment has gone into, as well as pointing out that it has the most developers while being the most secure blockchain around.
Blockchain Capital’s first fund has investments in the likes of Chain, Coinbase and Xapo in the past.
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