- Andre Yunque
The World’s First Cryptocurrency-Formed Venture Fund?
Just when you thought the current blockchainsanity couldn’t get any more bemusing, this happened:
Russian venture capital firm Kapinvest 21 has launched FinShi Capital, a venture fund based on cryptocurrencies, in partnership with a group of unnamed Chinese investors, Asia LP.
This fund will target blockchain and fintech projects in Russia and beyond. It commenced selling pre-ICO (Initial Coin Offering) tokens on June 15. This permits token owners to become investors in the fund through an Ethereum contract. These tokens will be collateralised with its equity stakes in its portfolio fims.
On its website, FinShi Capital bills itself as the world’s first blockchain-formed venture capital fund. It claims to earn “more than 120% per annum on venture investments” and plans to “reach 520% per annum income” for its investors, though it is quick to point out that “there are no guarantees in venture investments, because you can never know for sure which of the startups would grow to be a huge successful company and which would fail.”
It also appears to be run by a group of guys with perfectly trimmed beards with a penchant for acetate eyewear, though that may just be the stock images they’re running.
Joking aside, the fund is currently looking at 30 companies with the intention of investing in 15 of them over the next two years. It only targets projects with a minimum viable product and a string of clients, and hopes to invest between $500,000 and $5 million in them through seed, Series A, or Series B rounds.
As solid as that sounds though, the whole blockchain-ness of the project sort of diminishes the whole thing into a mere novelty, at least for me. I may have missed something here but with cryptocurrency volatility as it is, wouldn’t potential investors want to hedge that out for the sake of managing their returns? The fund seems to allow investments as low a dollar though, so I guess that point is moot.
Photo: BTC Keychain