Crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital plans to close first Blockchain Fund in next three to four weeks


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