Lightspeed Faction launches $285M startup fund for crypto initiatives

Enterprise capital agency Lightspeed Faction has created a $285 million fund for crypto startups, in keeping with a Nov. 9 announcement. The fund will give attention to “early stage blockchain initiatives” and also will present capital as these initiatives scale, the announcement said.

At Faction, no entrepreneur will ever must reply: “why crypto?” We’re absolutely red-pilled.

We’re popping out of stealth & saying the launch of Lightspeed Faction Fund I, a $285M early-stage enterprise fund devoted solely to crypto https://t.co/oUiAh6t5Sp

— Faction (@FactionVC) November 9, 2023

Lightspeed Faction mentioned it will possibly present founders entry to “a group of skilled blockchain buyers and operators,” together with members of the Amber Group, Blockchain.com, and Coinbase groups. The agency is a three way partnership between the extra conventional tech-oriented fund Lightspeed Enterprise Companions and the crypto-only fund, Faction. It makes an attempt to mix the experience of each organizations in an effort to maximize success.

Lightspeed Faction co-founder Banafsheh Fathieh claimed that the $285 million fund is required for the various promising blockchain initiatives which are sprouting up every day, stating:

“[C]rypto is a generation-defining know-how, and we’re absolutely dedicated to investing behind one of the best entrepreneurs trying to propel blockchain know-how ahead. The blockchain ecosystem is filled with promising initiatives trying to disrupt the whole lot from monetary methods to telecommunication.”

Associated: Crypto VC firm Spartan Capital invests in Pendle to drive DeFi growth

Within the announcement, Lightspeed Faction claimed that it funded a number of blockchain startups through the bear market that turned out to be successes, together with Crossmint, Lens, Narya.ai, Skip.cash, Matter Labs, and others. It usually will get concerned throughout seed and Sequence A rounds.

Crypto enterprise capital funding fell to a three-year low in the third quarter of 2023, with many funds seemingly being scared away by low crypto costs and a scarcity of media consideration in comparison with the bull market of 2021. Nonetheless, some initiatives have nonetheless managed to achieve multi-million dollar raises even with these decrease ranges of funding.