Crypto.com Capital, the venture arm of Crypto.com has announced its plan to expand its investment fund as it appoints former TechCrunch journalist Jon Russell as the fund’s General Partner [GP]. Revealing the same in the blog dated 17 January 2022, the investment firm added that Russell comes with 10 years experience as a technology journalist, which includes stints with leading online news firm TechCrunch and subscription media startup The Ken.
The $200 million funds were launched back in March 2021 to invest in promising early-stage startups that have the potential to bring the digital asset ecosystem to one billion users. As per the blog post, Crypto.com Capital has over 10 million users through products such as a Visa debit card, trading exchange, and NFT platform.
The fund is spearheaded by Crypto.com co-founder Bobby Bao and it targets seed and Series A deals in categories including the metaverse, blockchain gaming, NFTs, and DeFi. As stated in the blog, it has completed over 20 deals and its portfolio of companies consists of the likes of Efinity, Genies, DeBank, Alethea AI, YGG SEA, and Matter Labs. Speaking on the occasion, Bobby Bao said,
Crypto.com Capital is not even one year old, but already we work hand-in-hand with dozens of world-class founders and we want to find more. Adding Jon to the team is a statement of intent to double down and grow the web3 ecosystem.
Crypto.com is the most ambitious company- Jon Russell
Its new General Partner, Jon Russell termed Crypto.com to be ‘the most ambitious company in web3. He further went on to add that the firm’s capital fund brings a very ‘unique advantage to help the world’s best web3 founders and startups to realize their potential.’
Having said that, It’s not uncommon for crypto firms to move into venture capital. Recently Bahamian trading platform FTX launched a new venture unit, called FTX Ventures, and hired Amy Wu, the former exec at Lightspeed, to lead the fund. In 2021, more than 1,700 venture capital deals enable many crypto startups, projects, and protocols to reap over $25 billion in funds. Several prominent venture firms like Paradigm and a16z had also launched new multi-billion venture funds last year.