Lemniscap – a global, thesis-driven investment firm backing early-stage Web3 founders – announced it has raised a $70 million fund to provide financial support and strategic guidance to help nascent Web3 startups scale rapidly.
The $70 million fund will focus on a broad range of opportunities in the blockchain ecosystem, with some of the key areas of focus including Zero Knowledge Infrastructure, Consumer Applications, the emerging Bitcoin ecosystem, Security, Decentralized Physical Infrastructure and Phygital (DePin). The fund is anchored by Accolade Partners, one of the largest fund of funds in the United States, specializing in early-stage venture capital, growth capital and blockchain fund investments.
Launched in 2017 by Roderik van der Graaf, Lemniscap has a strong financial background, including at some of the world’s most renowned financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Rabobank and Bear Stearns.
Roderik, who has been providing strategic advice to early-stage blockchain companies since 2014, is uniquely positioned to launch an institutional-grade investment firm tailored to the then-niche space. He has assembled a tight-knit team of crypto veterans with synergistic experience combining finance, economics, computer science, and entrepreneurship. Since the firm’s inception, the core team has remained intact, firmly aligned with a long-term mission to power a decentralized and transparent future.
Having developed, launched and managed several funds to date, significantly outperforming industry benchmarks and market peers, Lemniscap has earned an impeccable reputation among Web3 founders across the industry spectrum. And its first fund was launched in late 2017 (just before the sharp market decline of 2018). During the crisis, Lemniscap continued to seek out quality projects, and the bets the firm placed in 2018 generated substantial gains. Lemniscap’s fundamental market thesis and investment logic have remained intact throughout periods of market volatility and regulatory uncertainty.
To date, Lemniscap has completed over 130 investments, growing from a follow-on investor to the largest lead investor and high-conviction allocator in the Web3 space. Lemniscap’s portfolio has grown to include some of the most critical protocols and infrastructure solutions in the Web3 space, 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 expertise in Web3, which has allowed them to develop a nuanced understanding of the needs of founders operating in such a fast-paced and regulatory-sensitive sector. Additionally, Lemniscap’s holistic approach to portfolio management prioritizes long-term success over short-term gains, ensuring that each investment is managed holistically.
KEY QUOTES:
“Since our launch seven years ago, the firm’s reputation has become one of our strongest brands with founders, who we truly treat as partners. They are our strongest asset when it comes to finding valuable insights, building lasting partnerships and targeting high-potential early-stage opportunities. This new fund will give us significant financial muscle to support the next generation of ambitious industry pioneers.”
- Roderik van der Graaf, founder and managing partner of Lemniscap
“Having already successfully launched several funds based on methodical and proven investment theses, the Lemniscap team has proven its ability to unearth exceptional founders and projects at the forefront of Web3 innovation. We have absolute confidence in the strategy and the management team of the fund and we look forward to a prosperous and collaborative working relationship.”
- Marcos Veremis, partner of Accolade Partners
“At Lemniscap, we believe that fostering local innovation is essential to building a robust and resilient decentralized ecosystem. Lemniscap is very proud to be able to identify and help define emerging verticals, supported by scalable solutions with well-defined product roadmaps. Today’s announcement is another step in this journey, and we are excited to continue working with founders who share our vision of a decentralized, transparent and equitable digital future.”
- Shaishav Todi, General Partner at Lemniscap
