Crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital, which is a venture capital firm focused on the crypto space, recently in an investor conference call announced its plans to close its first Blockchain Fund in the next three to four weeks. It has raised around $1.3 billion worth of capital for its Blockchain Fund.

Pantera stated that the fund will be invested in firms across multiple crypto sectors such as blockchain infrastructure, nonfungible token (NFT) platforms, Web3 startups, the Metaverse, exchanges, and decentralized finance (Defi), early-stage tokens, and digital tokens with established liquidity levels.

Last year in the month of May Pantera Blockchain Fund was announced. In the month of June, Pantera's initial goal for this fund was $600 million so as to invest in early-stage tokens, venture equity, Web3 firms and tokens with strong liquidity. Four other funds join with this which are Venture, Bitcoin, Early-Stage Token, and Liquid Token.

An investor conference call on 12th th April discussed the latest $1.3 billion figure regarding Pantera's new $200 million worth of capital Pantera Select Fund, which will invest in "growth stage" crypto firms that are ready to generate revenue as opposed to those that are in early funding stages via the Blockchain Fund. Pantera Select Fund is also expected to close in early May. As per firm, the fund will be used to support and scale companies that are already open for business.

In exchange for fees, Pantera invests investor money into promising projects and returns it to investors. The company plans to launch a sequel to the Blockchain Fund which is Blockchain Fund II in 2023 and a growth-stage fund in 2024. Further, the firm is planning a $200 million Select Fund that will be focused on mature, revenue-generating companies than our typical Seed and Series A venture investments.

In the firm’s 5th April newsletter, the Pantera CEO also stated that the funds will be “smaller, more targeted, and therefore more concentrated than a typical growth fund” as he emphasized his bullishness on having multiple deals already in place.

Funds raised by another firm :

In the past week, NEAR Protocol raised $350 million, Binance US gathered $200 million to build out the exchange, and NFT firm Genies reportedly raised $150 million. Last month Kathryn Haun, which was formerly a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, announced that she raised $1.5 billion for her Haun Ventures to invest in early-stage and growing Web3 ventures. Last June, Andreessen Horowitz collected $2.2 billion for its Crypto Fund III. In November, Paradigm, which was led by Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, announced a $2.5 billion fund. And FTX ventures have raised $2 billion to play with for its own Web3 fund.

Indrani Bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA