Early stage-focused web3 firm Inception Capital, formerly known as OP Crypto, has closed its inaugural fund at $30 million, David Gan, founder and general partner of the firm, exclusively shared with TechCrunch.
The fund, OP Fund of Funds I LP, targeted family offices and high-net-worth individuals who want “diversified” exposure to early-stage crypto venture deals. It is backed by investors including Mirana, FJ Labs and Serafund. “Instead of family offices trying to make the best investments themselves, this vehicle is a good hedge and risk adjusted downside vehicle to get crypto exposure,” Gan said.
This vehicle plans to invest in about five new investment managers and funds annually, opposed to backing specific projects, protocols or startups, Gan added. “We’re putting our money in the hands of other institutional managers and getting a fairly diversified portfolio that these funds are invested into.”
The flagship vehicle will focus on investing in people “up and coming,” who are “hungry” and looking for early-stage startups. “This is a good calendar year to double down on the space, invest early and back entrepreneurs,” Gan said.
The fund has deployed about 30% to date and plans to continue its focus on emerging managers in the crypto venture space.
The five managers it has invested in are Syncracy Capital, Escape Velocity, Alliance, OrangeDAO and Everyrealm. It has also co-invested alongside Bain Capital Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Multicoin Capital, and a16z’s Marc Andressen and Chris Dixon. (Note: Inception Capital has a general partner stake in the first two managers.)
In general, the Fund of Fund (FoF) space is a massive market with billions of dollars in capital, but in the crypto sector, it’s “very small,” Gan said. “I can count the number of crypto Fund of Funds with one hand.”
But going forward, Gan thinks there’s big opportunities for managers that have grown over the past couple of years to take on sovereign wealth money, endowments, pension funds or institutional FoFs that can then propel the crypto venture space “to match that in the traditional market.”