HomeFundingFabric Ventures announces new €109 million fund to invest in digital assets...

Fabric Ventures announces new €109 million fund to invest in digital assets and decentralisation 

Fabric Ventures, a venture manager that backs ‘open economy’ founders across the globe, today announces new fund valued at approx. €109 million ($130 million), which includes around €25.3 million ($30 million) from the European Investment Fund (EIF). Other notable 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.

Also investing are 42 partners, executives, contributors and founders drawn from Ethereum, (Transfer)Wise, 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.

Fabric Ventures’ 2021 fund is one of the very first EIF-backed funds specifically mandated to invest in digital assets. It will back traditional equity as well as the software tokens and other digital assets native to these new, inclusive and collaborative networks and applications. These are all underpinned by the recent invention of digital scarcity and hence ownership. The founders of the open economy frequently have the explicit objective of delivering solutions to many of humanity’s most fundamental challenges.

This new fund will continue with its 2017 thesis, adding to its portfolio of projects that  encompass open web, open finance and open media, which have a combined value north of around €35.3 million ($42 billion) today. The fund has attained approximately a 20x multiple on the invested capital.

The firm states that in just ten years, the network capitalization of Bitcoin and Ethereum has attained one trillion dollars, fueled by corporate adoption from the likes of Tesla, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola and PayPal. They go on to explain that in just two years, a $100 billion decentralised finance sector has emerged.

“Fabric’s new fund will be put to work partnering with the most daring and relentless entrepreneurs of the open economy on their journey to architect lasting protocols and platforms, not simply companies,” said Richard Muirhead, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Fabric Ventures. “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.”

Commenting on the funding round, EIF Chief Executive Alain Godard said: “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.”

Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, said: “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.”

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Charlotte Tucker
Charlotte Tucker
Charlotte is the previous Editor at EU-Startups.com. She spends her time scouting the next big story, managing our contributor team, and getting excited about social impact ventures. She has previously worked as a Communications Consultant for number of European Commission funded startup projects.
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