Kraken Ventures, an independent investment fund launched by Kraken in February, has closed a $65 million funding round successfully. The fund is led by Brandon Gath, former head of corporate development and current managing partner. It targets early stage companies and protocols across the crypto and fintech ecosystem, mainly the bleeding edge of innovation in emerging tech and crypto.
Apart from Kraken as the main liquidity provider, the fund raised capital from a broad group of global institutional investors, Business Wire wrote. Kraken is the fourth biggest crypto exchange by transaction volume.
Investing in the next wave of crypto innovation
Kraken Ventures invests in the technologies at the basis of the next wave of fintech and crypto innovation. It focuses on areas like Web3, financial infrastructure, enabling technologies such as AI and Machine Learning, DeFi, and consumer crypto protocols.
Brandon Gath commented:
We’re extremely pleased to have successfully closed our first fund. Our long-term view on investing, and the possibility to leverage Kraken’s experience in building a truly global, scalable platform, definitely contributed to the overwhelming interest we received from investors. Our focus now is to put that money to work and help some of the most innovative projects and their exceptionally talented founders accelerate the development of their companies and protocols.
Targeting investments of up to $2M
Kraken Ventures aims for initial investments ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. Their strategy is based on a practical approach and a long-term investment horizon. The team and its portfolio companies cooperate to develop and scale their businesses by providing capital support, offering strategic guidance, and sourcing new commercial opportunities.
Global expansion plans
The fund has plans to expand globally. As part of those, they appointed Laurens De Poorter as Head of Europe. He will be based in London and focus on identifying and making investments and working with portfolio companies in and beyond Europe.
Laurens De Poorter said:
The European crypto scene is booming. Deal count doubled in the last two years and continues to accelerate. With the influx of institutional money and impending regulation wave, one of the most promising areas will be the intersection of crypto and fintech. I couldn’t be more excited to join Kraken Ventures and look forward to working with the broader team to identify the most promising opportunities out there.
Another recent appointment was that of Mavis Xu as Senior Associate. She will be based in New York and take responsibility for due diligence, sourcing new investment opportunities, and concluding investments.
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