The London-based venture capital company Blossom Capital raised $432 million to invest in early-stage tech startups in Europe. The firm has reserved a third of the proceeds for investments in the cryptocurrency industry.
Blossom Capital Eyes the Crypto Universe
The cryptocurrency initiative, which the British organization launched, does not come as a surprise since its Founder – Ophelia Brown – personally bought bitcoin ten years ago:
“I’ve personally been active in this space since buying my first Bitcoin in 2012. So we’ve kind of debated every year now, when is the right time to keep increasing the exposure and make it core to the fund.”
She also revealed that her company’s strategy includes not only investing in digital assets but also “eyeing equity stakes in early-stage companies developing crypto infrastructure.”
Alex Lim – Managing Partner at Blossom Capital – predicted that cryptocurrencies and applications built around blockchain technology have the potential to “inflate value” for early-stage companies. The notorious volatility of the asset class is not an issue for the exec, and he said his company is focused on the long-term:
“Our investment horizon is a decade long, and we are less concerned about day-to-day volatility.”
The firm has previously invested in the payments company CheckoutCom. Following the funding round, the latter’s valuation climbed to $40 billion, turning it into one of the most valuable startups in Europe. Other bets include the cybersecurity-automation platform Tines and the business planning software Pigment.
Blossom Capital’s most significant investment to date is in the crypto-payments company MoonPay. In November last year, the venture capital firm closed a $555 million round, which increased MoonPay’s valuation to $3.4 billion. Apart from Blossom Capital, the investment was also led by Coatue, Tiger Global, and Paradigm.
Largest Funds This Year
Although only 18 days have passed since the start of the new year, the cryptocurrency space has already seen some massive funding rounds.
On January 5, OpenSea – the leading NFT marketplace – raised $300 million in Series C funding, putting its valuation at more than $13 billion. Hedge fund sponsors such as Paradigm and Coatue led the investment. The hegemon in the non-fungible token universe vowed to distribute the funds to fulfill four goals: accelerate product development; improve customers’ support policy; invest in the NFT ecosystem, and hire more people.
Shortly after, the prominent crypto investor Katie Haun revealed plans to raise a whopping $900 million for a pair of digital asset investment funds. This development could be a significantly large debut for her venture capital firm since she recently left Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Subsequently, the US cryptocurrency exchange FTX set up a $2 billion venture fund to invest in specific blockchain projects. The entire amount of the funding came from the company’s Founder and CEO – Sam Bankman-Fried.
