Crypto VC Firm LeadBlock Partners Confirms First Close of $150M Fund
- A crypto venture capital firm, LeadBlock Partners, has confirmed the closing of its new crypto fund, and the firm has successfully raised over $150 million for the same.
- A community has been created which includes Animoca Brands’ chief operating officer, Arnold Concepcion; professor of economics and blockchain academic chair at Ecole Polytechnique Paris, Julien Prat; and Horizen Labs founder Liat Aaronson.
- This announcement comes at a time when LeadBlock Partners has opened an office in Paris to make a strong push in the French ecosystem and invest in local crypto firms.
One of the rapidly rising crypto venture capital firms, LeadBlock Partners, has confirmed the closing of its new crypto fund, and the firm has successfully raised over $150 million for the same. The VC firm based in London and Paris was founded around two years ago by former employees at the well-reputed financial services firm Goldman Sachs, David Chreng-Messembourg, Baptiste Cota, and Jean-Marc Puel.
The $150 million crypto fund from LeadBlock Partners comes at a time when the entire crypto space is suffering from a price reduction and there has been a decline in the investments that traditional finance firms are making into crypto startups. The year 2022 has been quite different from 2021 wherein multiple partnership deals were struck between various firms.
“We’ve raised and deployed most of our first fund over the past two years,” said Chreng-Messembourg in an interview. “But we’ve been pushed by our LPs to launch fund two faster as we’re in a cooldown period where there’s a lot of value to be created.”
Interestingly, the new $150 million fund from LeadBlock Partners will invest in both tokens and equity and as per the report, it is backed by family offices, hedge fund managers and financial institutions. Furthermore, it is also crucial to note that some of the firms backing the new $150 million fund include GSR, the Coatue-backed Portofino Technologies, Woorton and Keyrock and others. Wintermute co-founder Yoann Turpin is also investing in the fund, as is SwissBorg founder Cyrus Fazel.
Moreover, it has also been revealed that Chreng-Messembourg has roped in market makers for the LeadBlock Partners $150 million fund. This will allow the market makers which usually invest directly via their venture arms, to get access to the tokens issued by LeadBlock-backed projects.
“It’s already very difficult to find a co-founder [as a founder], recruit, raise capital, build the product, and scale,” said Chreng-Messembourg. “And within two years, on top of that, your investors are asking you to design the tokenomics, negotiate the market-making deal and the listing partners with the exchanges.”
Moreover, a community has been created as well that aims to bridge the different corners of the crypto industry. This community includes Animoca Brands’ chief operating officer, Arnold Concepcion; professor of economics and blockchain academic chair at Ecole Polytechnique Paris, Julien Prat; and Horizen Labs founder Liat Aaronson, who was also responsible for Yuga Lab’s ApeCoin launch.
This announcement comes at a time when LeadBlock Partners has opened an office in Paris to make a strong push in the French ecosystem and invest in local crypto firms.
In the light of similar events, recently, New York City-based hedge fund Two Sigma Ventures recently announced the closing of two venture funds: Two Sigma Ventures IV (TSV IV) and Two Sigma Ventures Opportunity Fund II (TSV Opps II).
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
