Polychain Capital, Coinfund raises $350M for new crypto fund: Report
More than $350 million has been raised by crypto venture capital firms Polychain Capital and Coinfund, reporting increases of $200 million in new investment funds and $152 million in seed funds, respectively.
Forbes July 18th report said the $200 million amount Polychain raised in the “first closure” of its fourth investment fund, according to a source familiar with the matter. The closure means Polychain has now entered into agreements with investors and can start releasing funds to startups and projects.
Despite the significant increase, Polychain still intends to raise a total of $400 million for the new fund. In addition, Polychain let go of three members of its research team due to its new investment priorities.
Polychain currently manages a total of three funds with approximately $2.6 billion in assets under management, according to Pitchbook data.
Although VC funding for crypto projects has declined consistently for more than a year, VC firm Coinfund also raised $152 million for its fourth seed fund, according to Bloomberg July 18 report.
July is CoinFund’s 8th birthday, celebrating the journey @jbruk @flexthink and the team from the kitchen table to the hat table. We are excited to support this milestone with the announcement that CoinFund has closed a $158 million Seed IV Fund to support emerging internet leaders.
pic.twitter.com/6kwBFuIHiy
— CoinFund (@coinfund_io) July 18, 2023
Coinfund CEO Jake Brukhman said that the company had its sights on raising $125 million but managed to raise an additional $27 million due to a resurgence of interest in the industry.
Related: US crypto startup funding ‘dominates’ in Q2: Report
The total volume of venture funding for crypto and Web3 startups has decreased by 76% from this time last year, according to data from business analytics firm Crunchbase.
The total amount of venture funding and number of deals for crypto startups in the last two years. Source: Crunchbase
Investors are reportedly becoming increasingly wary of the crypto sector, following the collapse of the ecosystem of Terra Money Do Kwon, FTX Sam Bankman-Fried and a number of other high profile projects over the span of the last two years.
This has led to a retreat to more traditional sectors of the market and many venture capitalists have become wary of new investments throughout, with the only exception being artificial intelligence.
On January 1st, the AI industry has seen excess $12 billion dollars in venture funding as investors race to capitalize on this nascent sector.
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