Early Wyre Backer Launches $200M Fund for ‘Mid-Growth’ Crypto

Blockchain Coinvestors, a blockchain investment firm with more than $450 million in assets under management (AUM), has launched a $200 million mid-stage growth fund providing exposure to emerging blockchain companies, a source close to the firm told CoinDesk.

The existence of the fund was revealed in an April newsletter now available on the Blockchain Coinvestors website, but the size of the fund wasn’t included.

The new nine-figure fund serves as the latest example that the venture capital sector’s rush into crypto hasn’t slowed down just yet.

That said, Blockchain Coinvestors is in crypto for the long haul. Launched in 2014, the firm has invested in more than 40 pure-play blockchain venture funds and has a combined portfolio of more than 400 blockchain and crypto projects.

The new “Blockchain Coinvestors VI (Mid Stage Growth)” will invest in 20 to 30 projects with “attractive return profiles and visible paths to liquidity,” according to the newsletter. The mid-stage nature of the funds means backing Series B, C and D funding rounds.

The firm said the new fund continues the mid-stage strategy of the fund manager that has invested in the likes of asset manager Bitwise, metaverse onboarder InfiniteWorld, digital asset securities platform Securitize and payments processor Wyre, which was acquired last month by payments company Bolt for $1.5 billion.

Blockchain Coinvestors has two other active funds. Fund III offers a “fund of funds” strategy, investing in top pure-play venture funds in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Fund IV is an early-stage token fund with direct access to private-stage token projects from a fund manager that has previously invested in Filecoin, Near and Polkadot, among others.

The firm also has a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition I that’s targeting blockchain-enabled businesses. The SPAC raised $261 million in its November initial public offering.