Shima Capital, a global venture firm that invests in early-stage blockchain companies across all market cycles, announced that it has launched its debut fund, Shima Capital Fund I and has “collectively raised $200 million.”
The Fund received significant “support from notable investors including Dragonfly Capital, Bill Ackman, Animoca, OKx, Mirana Ventures, Republic, and Andrew Yang, among others.”
Founded in 2021 by veteran investor Yida Gao, Shima Capital “supports blockchain startups in their earliest stages (i.e. pre-seed and seed) by providing hands-on oversight to help maximize each company’s value.”
Shima’s inaugural fund aims “to consistently deploy capital when founders need it the most in addition to helping hire talent, build community, amplify narratives, and foster the acceleration of technical research and development.”
The Shima team is “composed of seasoned investors, accomplished operators, and former founders who align on a mission to help daring teams build and scale their companies.”
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said:
“Yida Gao and Shima Capital exemplify the early stage venture capital that’s needed in Web3. Shima’s strong focus on supporting founders and willingness to bash through walls for their sake resonates well with Animoca Brands’ ethos. It’s a great honor to partner with Shima Capital, especially given the fund’s high conviction in the global proliferation of digital property rights and an open metaverse.”
Jeff Ren, Head of Investment at OK Group, remarked:
“We at OKX Blockdream Capital believe that Shima Capital has shown promising results in being able to identify paradigm shifts in the cryptocurrency industry. We are looking forward to establishing a working relationship with Shima Capital alongside its other LPs.”
Shima invests in “the earliest rounds of blockchain startups across all verticals with check sizes of $500,000 to $2,000,000.”
Areas of focus “include but are not limited to consumer (e.g. decentralized identity, social media, content ownership, DAO’s), gaming & metaverse, composable financial systems (e.g. sustainable DeFi, regenerative finance, payments & settlement), decentralized infrastructure (e.g. data platforms, blockchain automation, cross-chain communication), and next-generation blockchain technology (e.g. Layer 1/2, zero-knowledge proofs, security).”
Gao, Founder and Managing Partner of Shima Capital, stated:
“As crypto-focused VC’s continue to raise massive billion dollar plus funds, we identified a pocket of opportunity to support Web3 founders with their first institutional checks that are considered too small for other Tier 1 investors,”
He added:
“We also observed that early-stage funds usually do not provide extensive value-adds for founders given limited resources. At Shima, we take the opposite approach and spend the necessary resources to provide our portfolio companies with surgical support typically found only with larger funds. We firmly believe this strategy of focusing on the earliest funding rounds and delivering a full suite of value-adds will yield strong returns for LPs and align incentives the most with founders.”