Over $350 million has been raised by crypto venture capital firms Polychain Capital and Coinfund, with respective reported raises of $200 million for a new investment fund and $152 million for a seed fund.
A July 18 Forbes report said Polychain’s $200 million sum was raised in the “first close” of its fourth investment fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. The close means Polychain has now signed agreements with investors and can begin issuing funding to startups and projects.
Despite the significant raise, Polychain still intends to raise $400 million in total for the new fund. Additionally, Polychain let go of three members of its research team due to its new investing priorities.
Polychain currently manages a total of three funds with approximately $2.6 billion in assets under management, according to Pitchbook data.
Despite VC funding for crypto projects declining consistently for over a year, VC firm Coinfund also raised $152 million for its fourth seed fund, according to a July 18 Bloomberg report.
July is CoinFund’s 8th anniversary, celebrating the journey of @jbrukh @flexthought and team from kitchen table to cap table. We’re thrilled to bolster this milestone with the announcement that CoinFund has closed its $158M Seed IV Fund to back the leaders of the new internet
pic.twitter.com/6kwBFuIHiy— CoinFund (@coinfund_io) July 18, 2023
Coinfund CEO Jake Brukhman said the company had its sights set on raising $125 million but managed to rake in an additional $27 million due to a resurgence of interest in the industry.
Related: US ‘dominates’ crypto startup funding in Q2: Report
The total volume of venture funding for crypto and Web3 startups has declined by 76% from this time last year, according to data from business analytics firm Crunchbase.
Investors have reportedly grown wary of the crypto sector, following on from the collapse of Do Kwon’s Terra Money ecosystem, Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and a number of other high-profile projects over the span of the last two years.
This has caused a retreat into more traditional market sectors and many venture capitalists have become cautious of new investments across the board, with the only notable exception being artificial intelligence.
As of Jan. 1, the AI industry had seen in excess of $12 billion dollars in venture funding as investors race to capitalize on the nascent sector.
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