With the support of a16z and Tiger Global, which projects did Volt Capital, who wants to do reverse investment, invest in?

Author: Zen, LianGuaiNews

According to a report from Swiss investment advisor 21e6 Capital AG, as of August this year, 97 out of more than 700 cryptocurrency funds worldwide have closed. The institution stated, “Most funds have positive returns, but in many cases, this is not enough to attract capital.” The current “capital winter” inevitably makes people nostalgic for the past “glory” of cryptocurrency funds. For example, in the first half of last year, statistics show that a total of 107 Web3-related funds were launched globally, with a total size of nearly $40 billion. Among them, there were top-tier venture capital firms like Tiger Global and a16z, which raised tens of billions and $4.5 billion respectively. These two giants also supported a rising venture capital firm called Volt Capital during this period.

In May last year, Volt Capital announced that it had raised $50 million for its second cryptocurrency fund, with support from a16z general partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon. Other supporters of this fund include Tiger Global, angel investor Elad Gil, and others. As a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage startups, Volt Capital has made more than 30 investments in early-stage cryptocurrency companies and protocols, such as Magic Eden, Nansen, LayerZero, Magic, Coinshift, Thirdweb, and Sound, from 2020 to the present.

Post-90s founder Soona Amhaz transitions from the cryptocurrency community to investment

Soona Amhaz, the founder and general partner of Volt Capital, graduated from the University of Michigan College of Engineering. During her university years, she spent a lot of time on Reddit, and the emerging topic of discussion was Bitcoin. However, at that time, Soona felt that the cryptocurrency industry was not mature enough and worried that she would not have a long-term career in this field. Therefore, after graduating from college in 2015, Soona chose to join data intelligence solution provider Alation as the company’s 20th employee. At that time, Alation had just completed Series A financing with support from a16z, DCVC, and other institutions. It was a very promising startup (in November last year, Alation raised $123 million at a valuation of $1.7 billion).

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Even after starting work, Soona continued to closely follow the cryptocurrency industry. As people mainly obtained news from Reddit, Coindesk, and Twitter at that time, the content and information were somewhat chaotic. This led her to have the idea of building a vibrant, high-quality, and trustworthy community. In 2017, she co-founded the cryptocurrency community Token Daily with others, and without any marketing, it gained over 16,000 readers and users. They also actively organized events with builders in the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other vertical fields.

Over time, many projects started reaching out to her before launching. Some projects would seek feedback on product strategy and talent from her and the community before raising funds, and they would seek help with distribution and dissemination through newsletters. Gradually, Token Daily’s information network also contributed to Soona’s network of interpersonal relationships. She got to know many excellent teams building potential projects in the cryptocurrency field and got ahead of the progress of these projects. When she saw a large influx of funds into the cryptocurrency industry and many projects she knew had potential received investments from investment institutions, she realized she had an advantage in this area. After a period of personal investment, Soona finally decided to start her own fund, Volt Capital, in 2019.

It is worth mentioning that in the same year Volt Capital was founded, Lebanon experienced a financial crisis, with cumulative inflation reaching as high as 4667% as of August this year. As a result, Soona’s family in Lebanon lost a lot of assets. Soona suggested that they convert their remaining assets into Bitcoin to protect themselves from further currency depreciation and currency controls, which deepened her understanding of cryptocurrencies.

Supported by top institutions and investors

In April 2021, Soona Amhaz, who was previously selected for Forbes’ 30 under 30 in the venture capital field, announced that Volt Capital launched its first fund and raised $10 million for it. This fund received support from well-known investors and investment institutions such as Web3 venture CMT Digital, former Coinbase CTO and former a16z general partner Balaji Srinivasan, Union Square Ventures managing partner Albert Wenger, and Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman. The funds raised are used to invest in crypto data, infrastructure, and DeFi startups.

In the first half of 2022, various investment institutions successively announced the establishment of crypto funds, with giants like a16z even directly launching a crypto fund called “CryptoFundIV” with a scale of up to $4.5 billion. In May of the same year, Volt Capital announced that it raised $50 million for its second crypto fund and received support from a16z general partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, as well as other supporters including Tiger Global, angel investor Elad Gil, hedge fund manager Brevan Howard, and Albert Wenger. This fund is used to invest in crypto infrastructure, DeFi, NFT, and DAO-related projects, focusing on early-stage Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A equity financing.

Overview of Volt Capital’s portfolio

Corresponding to the timing of the fund launch, most of Volt Capital’s investments are concentrated from the first quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022. The most recent investment is Spearbit, a Web3 security company that announced in August this year that it raised $7 million in funding with Framework Ventures as the lead investor. In addition, in May of this year, Magic, a provider of Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS), announced that it raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by LianGuail Ventures, with Volt Capital participating as a seed round investor.

According to public information gathered from Volt Capital’s official website and LianGuaiNews, Volt Capital has currently invested in at least 30 crypto projects. As mentioned above, its investment focus is in infrastructure and tools, NFTs, and digital assets, including crypto wallets, DeFi, infrastructure layers, software development, data storage, security, privacy, and other vertical sectors. In addition to being the lead investor in the seed funding round of NFT fraud detection startup Yakoa, all other investment rounds are follow-on investments.

Below is a brief introduction to the Volt Capital portfolio.

Infrastructure and Tools

• Nansen: Blockchain analytics platform. In October 2020, it announced the completion of a $1.2 million seed funding round led by Mechanism Capital and Skyfall Ventures, with participation from Robot Ventures and Fabric Ventures.

• Magic: Cryptocurrency wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) provider. In June 2020, Magic announced raising $4 million in a seed funding round led by Placeholder, with participation from Lightspeed Ventures, Volt Capital, and others. In May 2023, it announced raising $52 million in a strategic funding round led by LianGuaiyLianGuail Ventures, with participation from Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone, and Volt Capital.

• Cashmere: Solana ecosystem wallet management company. In August 2022, it completed a $3 million seed funding round with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Y Combinator.

• Liquality: Multi-chain wallet. Its Liquality SDK aims to provide a seamless experience for users. In August 2021, it raised $7 million in funding with participation from Hashed and Coinbase.

• Thirdweb: Web3 software development company. In May 2021, it announced raising $5 million in funding with participation from Mark Cuban and Volt Capital founder Soona Amhaz. In August 2022, it raised $24 million at a valuation of $160 million, with Haun Ventures leading the round and participation from Coinbase Ventures and others.

• layerzero: Full-chain interoperability protocol.

• Koop: Web3 protocol focused on creator economy. In August 2022, it announced raising $5 million in funding led by 1confirmation and Variant Fund, with participation from DeFi Alliance and others.

• Penumbra Labs: Cosmos ecosystem privacy layer network. In November 2021, it announced raising $4.75 million in a seed funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Robot Ventures and others.

• Spearbit: Web3 security company. In August 2023, it announced raising $7 million in funding with Framework Ventures leading the round and participation from Breed VC and Robot Ventures.

• Squads: DAO infrastructure project. In February 2022, it announced raising $5 million in strategic funding led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Jump Capital, Delphi Digital, and others.

• KYVE: Decentralized data storage solution. In June 2021, it completed a $1 million pre-seed funding round with participation from the Solana Foundation.

• Cozy Finance: Permissioned peer-to-peer protection solution for investing in DeFi and preventing hacks and exploits. In September 2020, it completed a $2 million seed funding round with participation from Dragonfly, Electric Capital, and others.

NFT

• Magic Eden: NFT trading platform.

• sound: Decentralized music streaming platform.

• center: NFT tools company, offering products including NFT rendering API and multi-chain interoperability auxiliary tools.

• Metahood: Metaverse startup. In January 2023, it announced raising $3 million in a seed funding round led by 1confirmation, with participation from Neon DAO, Sébastien Borget (co-founder of The Sandbox), and others.

• Pinata: Web3 infrastructure provider focused on NFTs. In August 2022, it announced raising $21.5 million, including an $18 million Series A funding round and a $3.5 million seed funding round raised in 2021. The funding rounds were led by Greylock and LianGuaintera, with participation from Greylock, Offline Ventures, Volt Capital, OpenSea, Alchemy, and others.

• MetaStreet: NFT lending liquidity provider for NFT collateral platforms. In February 2022, it announced raising $14 million in funding, including a $3 million seed funding round and $11 million in initial liquidity. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Ethereal Ventures, Sfermion, Nascent Capital, Delphi INFINFT, Alliance, and others.

• Yakoa: NFT fraud detection startup. In November 2022, it announced raising $4.8 million in a seed funding round led by Brevan Howard Digital, Volt Capital, and Collab+Currency.

• Recur: NFT brand experience company. In April 2021, it announced raising $5 million in a seed funding round led by DeFi Alliance, with participation from IOSG Ventures, Delphi Digital, Volt Capital, and others. In September 2021, it announced raising $50 million in Series A funding at a valuation of $333 million, with participation from Volt Capital. Recently, RECUR announced its complete shutdown on November 16, 2023.

Digital Assets

• Slingshot: Decentralized exchange platform (formerly known as DEX.AG)

• LianGuairsec Finance: DeFi and analytics platform for traders and data-focused users, completed a $1.2 million seed funding round in January 2021 with participation from Polychain and others.

• Giving Block: Cryptocurrency donation marketplace, founded in 2018. Acquired by US-based payment company Shift4 in March 2022, but still maintains autonomy and operates independently.

• Coinshift: Fund management and infrastructure platform, providing financial management tools for DAOs and Web3 companies. Raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round in October 2021, with investors including Sequoia Capital India, Fintech Collective, Consensys Mesh, Defi Alliance, and Volt Capital. Completed a $15 million Series A funding round in May 2022, led by Tiger Global, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Volt Capital.

• CoinLedger: Cryptocurrency tax reporting platform. Raised $6 million in February 2022, with participation from CMT Digital.

• LianGuaircel: Indian startup aiming to help DAOs with financial management. Completed a $500,000 pre-seed funding round in January 2021, with participation from Consensys.

Other:

• Lines: Web3 social platform. Announced $4 million in seed funding in July 2022, led by former Twitter VP Elad Gil, with participation from Scalar Capital.

• Merkle Manufactory: Developer of decentralized social networking protocol Farcaster, founded by former Coinbase executive Dan Romero. Announced $30 million in funding in July 2022, led by a16z, with participation from 1confirmation, Scalar Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and others.

• Matrix: Cryptocurrency protocol for creators, gamifying fan engagement and other digital brand activities. Completed a $470,000 pre-seed funding round in June 2020.

• BAYZ: Web3 gaming guild. Raised $4 million in December 2021, led by Yield Guild Games, with participation from BITKRAFT.

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