Crypto venture fund Dragonfly flutters into fintech with $100m
Dragonfly Capital Partners, a venture fund for crypto asset access, is launching its first $100 million fund towards crypto investments.
The founding team is led by managing partners Alexander Pack, a cryptocurrency venture capitalist and ex-manager for Bain Capital Ventures; and Bo Feng, a venture capital veteran and founding partner of Ceyuan Ventures.
Dragonfly says it aims to bridge the gap between East and West in the crypto economy, with an investment strategy focused on three types of assets:
- crypto-native funds to become asset management house names in crypto,
- protocols and applications to support a decentralised economy, and
- tech start-ups building bridges between the decentralised and centralised worlds.
“We realised how difficult it is for incumbent investment firms to participate in this tech trend. The issue is that crypto is not just a new technology but a new tech-driven asset class, something we haven’t witnessed in decades,” says Pack. “A new asset class calls for a new breed of asset manager.”
“I see a parallel between the internet boom in the ‘90s and the current cryptocurrency market opportunity,” says Feng, who was one of the first venture investors in the Internet.
Feng adds: “The crypto revolution may be even bigger than the internet and more global. We take an ecosystem approach, investing in fund managers around the world and connecting the top technologists from the West to the largest crypto companies and user bases in Asia.”
Dragonfly’s investors include firms such as OKEx, a cryptocurrency exchange, and the mining company Bitmain, the “largest blockchain company in the world”.
The list of investors includes Polychain Capital, Sequoia China, Baidu, and Alibaba US.
Dragonfly launches with an active portfolio of over 20 investments, including tech-driven crypto funds and asset managers, decentralised financial infrastructure, such as the cryptocurrency Basis; and foundational protocols, like Spacemesh and Oasis Labs.
On the topic of crypto funds, last June, American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz unveiled “a16z crypto” – its $300 million cryptocurrency-focused fund. Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, from A16Z, participated in Dragonfly’s investment.
