Fabric Ventures has announced a new $130 million fund dedicated to backing digital asset and decentralized, or DeFi, early-stage firms. The fund received the support of the European Investment Fund (EIF) which added $30 million to the fund. This is the first EIF backed fund in the digital asset sector. Fabric Ventures Group is registered as an AIFM with the CSSF in Luxembourg.
Alain Godard, EIF Chief Executive, commented on the funding:
“We are very pleased to be partnering with Fabric Ventures to bring to the European market this fund specialising in blockchain technologies. Despite their rich engineering talent, deeptech entrepreneurs in the blockchain sector in Europe often struggle to find financial support and investors that have a deep understanding of their space. This partnership seeks to address that need and unlock financing opportunities for entrepreneurs active in the field of blockchain technologies – a field of particular strategic importance for the EU and our competitiveness on the global stage.”
Fabric Ventures states that its vision is to support the open economy that supports the flow of data and value that generates greater economic outcome for all participants. Fabric Ventures believes this is an upgrade to capitalism.
Other limited partners in the new fund include Niklas Zennstrom’s venture firm Atomico, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Barry Silbert’s DCG, German multi-family office Lennertz & Co., Blockchain Coinvestors, and Hutt Capital.
Fabric Ventures noted there were 42 other individuals backing the fund including founders from Ethereum, Wise (formerly Transferwise), PayU, Polkadot, Sorare, Ledger, Ebury, PPRO, Aztec Protocol, Raisin, Aragon, Orchid, MySQL, MariaDB, NEAR Protocol, Curve, Blackpool, StakeDAO, Stake Capital, PayPal, Google, The New Institute, Verifone, Earlybird, Accelerator Ventures, Felix Capital, LocalGlobe, Matrix Partners China, Cambridge Associates, Evanston Capital, Brunswick, OpenOcean, DN Capital and Claret Capital. Fabric Ventures views an open, broad and active community as central to attracting the finest founders and propelling them on their path.
According to a release, the new fund pursue a similar thesis of its 2017 vintage whose portfolio of projects include open web, open finance, and open media; include Polkadot, TheGraph, Sorare, 1Inch, SkyMavis and Near; and have a combined value estimated at around $42 billion today.
Fabric Ventures says the fund has attained approximately a 20x multiple on the invested capital.
Richard Muirhead, co-founder and Managing Partner at Fabric Ventures, said the new fund will work with the most daring entrepreneurs:
“It is now well acknowledged that there is a need for a web that is user-owned and, consequently, more human-centric. There are astonishing people crafting this digital fabric for the benefit of all. We are excited to support those people with our latest fund.”
Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, added:
“As we see an ever-growing need for investments in Europe for the increasing number of highly innovative start-ups and SMEs in the Blockchain and AI space, I welcome this step in our collaboration with the EIF on this investment fund. We will continue to support the incubation and scale-up of highly innovative AI and Blockchain technologies, which are critical in ensuring that Europe is home to the thriving digital innovators of the future.”
Muirhead added that the new software of the open web makes it easier than ever to kickstart these new digital ecosystems while ensuring that concentration of market power never leads to their corruption and demise.
“Opportunities stretch from accounting for environmental impact and driving financial inclusion of individuals and businesses to harnessing the untapped power of health data. As these new equitable and inclusive digital networks become pervasive and interconnected, Fabric Ventures believes we shall see the global rise of a fairer and more open economy and a fairer society.”