CoinFund Secures $158M To Support Crypto, AI Startups

Venture capital (VC) dollars have been hard to come by lately, but some firms — like CoinFund — continue to push forward. 

The New York-based VC firm, which currently has more than 100 companies in its portfolio, announced that it raised $158 million in its latest round. The funds will be used to invest in early-stage crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) startups.

Where'd The Money Come From?

The fund was backed by high-net-worth individuals, family offices and institutional investors. Making the raise even more impressive is the fact that the firm was initially seeking $125 million.

In an interview with Decrypt, CoinFund Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer Alex Felix shared his thoughts on the direction today's startups are taking. 

"In the post-FTX era, we've seen a lot of developers resolve to finish the roadmap to a decentralized application developer stack," he said. "Now you’re seeing a big, renewed focus on scalability, interoperability and user experience to really bring that roadmap to decentralization to completion." 

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CoinFund: Standing Out From The Crowd

CoinFund's portfolio includes startups like Giza and Cosmos. This experience will come in handy as the firm considers how to best use its most recent raise. 

According to CoinFund’s website, they exclusively invest in the Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A stages of a startup’s funding cycle. CoinFund’s Crunchbase shows over 120 investments from the venture capital fund.

The VC fundraising environment remains challenging, but CoinFund has found a way to overcome less-than-ideal market conditions. According to Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., "Only $720 million was raised by 10 new crypto VC funds in Q2 2023, the lowest since Q3 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Despite these challenges, CoinFund has found a silver lining: Entrepreneurs are competing harder for limited funds. In the end, this favors patient VC firms. 

"It slows down dealmaking, but it allows you more time to make the most thoughtful and best decisions possible," Felix said. "You have to really be solving harder problems and put your company under a lot more scrutiny earlier than you would have in the broader tech boom."

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