Lemniscap – a global thesis-driven investment firm backing early-stage Web3 founders – announced it had raised a $70 million fund to provide financial backing and strategic guidance to help nascent Web3 startups scale at pace.
The $70 million fund will focus on a broad range of opportunities across the blockchain ecosystem, with some of the key areas of interest including Zero Knowledge Infrastructure, Consumer Applications, emerging Bitcoin Ecosystem, Security, Phygital and Decentralised Physical Infrastructure (DePin). And the fund is anchored by Accolade Partners, one of the largest Fund of Funds in the US, specializing in early-stage VC, growth equity, and blockchain fund investments.
Launched in 2017 by Roderik van der Graaf, Lemniscap has a strong financial background, including tenure at some of the world’s most renowned financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Rabobank, and Bear Stearns.
Roderik – having provided strategic advisory to early-stage blockchain companies since 2014 – is uniquely positioned to launch an institutional grade investment firm tailored to the then niche space. And he assembled a cohesive team of crypto-native veterans with synergetic experience combining Finance, Economics, Computer Science, and Entrepreneurship. Since the firm’s founding, the core team has remained intact, firmly aligned on a long-term mission to power a decentralized and transparent future.
After developing, launching and managing multiple funds to date, significantly outperforming industry benchmarks and market peers, Lemniscap has established impeccable credentials among Web3 founders across the industry spectrum. And its first fund was launched at the tail end of 2017 (right before the sharp market decline of 2018). During the downturn, Lemniscap continued sourcing quality projects, and the bets the firm placed in 2018 have yielded substantial gains. Lemniscap’s foundational market thesis and investment rationale have remained intact throughout periods of market volatility and regulatory uncertainty.
So far, Lemniscap has made 130+ investments, growing from a follow-on investor to one of the Web3 industry’s most prominent lead investors and high conviction allocators. And the Lemniscap portfolio has expanded to include top protocols and some of the most critical infrastructural solutions powering the Web3 industry, with flagship investments including Avalanche, The Graph, Axelar, StepN, Paragraph, LN Markets as well as Aligned Layer, Axelar, Eigen Layer, Puffer, Monad, and Anoma.
Lemniscap’s team has multidisciplinary experience and deep-level Web3 expertise – which have helped them develop a nuanced understanding of the needs of founders operating in such a frenetic and regulatory-sensitive industry. And Lemniscap’s holistic approach to portfolio management prioritises long-term success rather than short-term gains, ensuring that each investment is nurtured comprehensively.
KEY QUOTES:
“In the seven years since we launched, reputation has become one of our strongest brands among founders, who we genuinely treat as partners. They represent our strongest edge when it comes to sourcing rich intelligence, building lasting partnerships, and honing in on early-stage, high-potential opportunities. This new fund will give us significant financial firepower to support the next generation of ambitious industry pioneers.”
- Roderik van der Graaf, Founder and Managing Partner of Lemniscap
“Having already launched multiple successful funds underpinned by methodical, battle-tested investment theses, the Lemniscap team has proven adept at sourcing exceptional founders and projects at the cutting edge of Web3 innovation. We are supremely confident in the fund’s strategy and management team, and look forward to a prosperous and collaborative working relationship.”
- Marcos Veremis, Partner of Accolade Partners
“At Lemniscap, we believe that fostering innovation at the grassroots level is essential for building a robust and resilient decentralised ecosystem. Lemniscap takes great pride in being able to identify and help define emerging verticals – underpinned by scalable solutions with well-defined product roadmaps. Today’s announcement is another step in that journey, and we’re excited to continue working with founders who share our vision of a decentralised, transparent, and equitable digital future.”
- Shaishav Todi, General Partner at Lemniscap
