Which projects did Volt Capital invest in for reverse investment?

By Zen, PANews

According to a report by Swiss investment consultant 21e6 Capital AG, as of August this year, 97 of more than 700 cryptocurrency funds around the world have closed. The agency stated: “Most fund returns have been positive, but in many cases, This is not enough to attract capital.” The current “capital winter” inevitably makes people miss the past “brilliance” of crypto funds. For example, in the first half of last year, according to statistics, a total of 107 Web3-related funds were launched around the world, with a total scale of nearly 40 billion U.S. dollars, including many top venture capital firms such as Tiger Global and a16z, which raised tens of billions and 4.5 billion U.S. dollars respectively. During this period, all the giants also supported a new venture capital called Volt Capital.

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

Post-90s founder Soona Amhaz pivots from crypto community to investment

Soona Amhaz, founder and general partner of Volt Capital, graduated from the University of Michigan School of Engineering. During her college years, she spent a lot of time on Reddit, and Bitcoin, which had begun to rise, was the main topic of her discussion. However, in Soona’s view at the time, the cryptocurrency industry was not mature enough, and she was worried that she would not be able to have a long-term career in this field. Therefore, after she graduated from college in 2015, Soona chose to join Alation, a data intelligence solution provider, and became the company’s 20th employee. At that time, Alation had just completed Series A financing with the support of a16z, DCVC and other institutions. It is a start-up with great potential (in November last year, Alation raised US$123 million at a valuation of US$1.7 billion).

Soona still pays close attention to the encryption industry after working. Since people mainly got their news from Reddit, Coindesk and Twitter at that time, the content and information were a bit messy, so she came up with the idea of building a vibrant, high-quality community that people can trust. In 2017, she co-founded the encryption community Token Daily, and gained more than 16,000 readers without any marketing. They also actively held events with builders in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other vertical fields.

Over time, many projects began contacting her before launching, some seeking feedback on product strategy and talent from her and the community before raising funds, and for help with distribution and communication via newsletters. Gradually, Token Daily’s information network also became Soona’s interpersonal network. She got to know many excellent teams building potential projects in the encryption field and learned about project progress first. She realized she had an advantage when she saw huge amounts of money pouring into the crypto industry, and many projects she knew had potential received investment from investment institutions. After a period of personal investing, Soona finally decided to start her own fund, Volt Capital, in 2019.

It is worth mentioning that in the same year that Volt Capital was established, the financial crisis broke out in Lebanon. As of August this year, the cumulative inflation was as high as 4667%. Soona’s family in Lebanon lost many assets as a result. Soona suggested that they convert their remaining assets into Bitcoin to protect themselves from further currency devaluation and currency control, and she also developed a deeper understanding of the value of cryptocurrencies.

Obtain support from top institutions and investors

In April 2021, Soona Amhaz, who had just been selected into Forbes 30 under 30 in the field of venture capital in the previous year, announced that Volt Capital launched its first fund and raised $10 million for it. This fund is supported by well-known investors and investment institutions such as Web3 venture capital CMT Digital and former chief technology officer of Coinbase, former a16z general partner Balaji Srinivasan, Union Square Ventures managing partner Albert Wenger, Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman, etc. The funds raised are used to invest in crypto data, infrastructure and DeFi startups.

In the first half of 2022, various investment institutions have successively officially announced the establishment of crypto funds, and even giants like a16z have directly launched the crypto fund “CryptoFundIV” with a scale of up to US$4.5 billion. Volt Capital also announced in May that it had raised $50 million for its second crypto fund and received support from a16z general partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon. Other backers of the fund include Tiger Global and angel investors Elad Gil, hedge fund managers Brevan Howard and Albert Wenger. The fund is used to invest in crypto infrastructure, DeFi, NFT and DAO related projects, and focuses on early-stage Pre-seed, seed and Series A equity financing.

Volt Capital’s investment portfolio at a glance

Corresponding to the time when the fund was launched, most of Volt Capital’s investments are concentrated from the first quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022. Its most recent investment project is the Web3 security company Spearbit announced in August this year, which completed a US$7 million investment financing, led by Framework Ventures; in addition, in May this year, crypto wallet as a service (WaaS) provider Magic announced that it had raised US$52 million in a strategic financing round led by PayPal Ventures as a seed investor in the project. Volt Capital once again participated in the investment.

According to public information collected by Volt Capital’s official website and PANews, Volt Capital has currently invested in at least 30 crypto projects. As mentioned above, its investment focuses on infrastructure and tools, NFT and digital asset tracks, including crypto wallets, DeFi, infrastructure layer, software development, data storage, security and privacy and other vertical segments, in addition. In addition to being the lead investor in the seed round of financing of NFT fraud detection startup Yakoa, all other rounds of investment were follow-up investments.

The following is a brief introduction to Volt Capital’s portfolio

Infrastructure and Tools

• Nansen: Blockchain analysis platform. In October 2020, it announced the completion of a US$1.2 million seed round of financing. Mechanism Capital and Skyfall Ventures led the investment, and Robot Ventures and Fabric Ventures participated.
• Magic: Crypto wallet as a service (WaaS) provider, in June 2020, Magic announced that it had raised US$4 million in a seed round led by Placeholder, with participation from Lightspeed Ventures, Volt Capital, etc., in 2023 In May it announced it had raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures, with participation from Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital.
• Cashmere: Solana Eco-Enterprise Wallet Management Company, completed a $3 million seed round of financing in August 2022, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Y Combinator.
• Liquality: A multi-chain wallet whose Liquality SDK aims to provide users with a seamless experience. It completed US$7 million in financing in August 2021, with participation from Hashed, Coinbase, etc.
• Thirdweb: Web3 software development company. In May 2021, it announced the completion of US$5 million in financing. Mark Cuban and Volt Capital founder Soona Amhaz participated in the investment. In August 2022, it completed another US$24 million at a valuation of US$160 million. U.S. dollar financing, led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others.
• layerzero: Full-chain interoperability protocol
• Koop: Web3 protocol focusing on the creator economy. In August 2022, it announced the completion of US$5 million in financing. 1confirmation and iant Fund led the investment, and DeFi Alliancel and others participated.
• Penumbra Labs: Cosmos ecological privacy layer network, announced in November 2021 that it has completed a seed round of financing of 4.75 million US dollars, led by Dragonfly Capital, and participated by Robot Ventures and others.
• Spearbit: Web3 security company, announced in August 2023 that it had completed US$7 million in financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Breed VC and Robot Ventures.
• Squads: DAO infrastructure project. In February 2022, it announced the completion of strategic financing of US$5 million. Multicoin Capital led the investment, and Jump Capital, Delphi Digital and others participated.
• KYVE: Decentralized data storage solution, completed pre-seed round financing of US$1 million in June 2021, with participation from Solana Foundation and others.
• Cozy Finance: A permission-required point-to-point protection solution so that users can invest in DeFi and prevent hackers, exploits, etc., completed a $2 million seed round of financing in September 2020, with participation from Dragonfly and Electric Capital.

NFT

• Magic Eden: NFT trading platform
• sound: Decentralized music streaming platform
• center: NFT tool company, products include NFT rendering API and multi-chain interoperability auxiliary tools
• **Metahood: **Metaverse start-up company, announced in January 2023 that it has completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by 1confirmation, Neon DAO, The Sandbox co-founder Sébastien Borget and others participated in the investment.
• Pinata: A Web3 infrastructure provider focusing on NFT. In August 2022, it announced the completion of US$21.5 million in financing, including US$18 million in Series A financing and US$3.5 million in seed round financing raised in 2021, two The round of financing was co-led by Greylock and Pantera, Greylock and Offline Ventures, and participated by Volt Capital, OpenSea and Alchemy.
• MetaStreet: NFT mortgage lending liquidity provider, providing liquidity and scaling solutions for NFT mortgage platforms. In February 2022, it announced the completion of US$14 million in financing. The financing included 3 million in seed financing and 11 million in initial liquidity. This round was led by Dragonfly Capital, Ethereal Ventures, Sfermion, Nascent Capital, Delphi INFINFT, Alliance, etc. Participate in investment.
• **Yakoa: **NFT fraud detection start-up company, announced in November 2022 that it has completed a $4.8 million seed round of financing, co-led by Brevan Howard Digital, Volt Capital and Collab+Currency.
• Recur: NFT brand experience company announced in April 2021 that it had completed a US$5 million seed round of financing, led by DeFi Alliance, with participation from IOSG Ventures, Delphi Digital, Volt Capital, etc. In September 2021, it announced the completion of a US$50 million Series A financing at a valuation of US$333 million, with Volt Capital once again participating in the investment. Recently, RECUR announced that it will be completely closed on November 16, 2023.

Digital Assets

• slingshot: Decentralized trading platform (formerly DEX.AG)
• Parsec Finance: A DeFi and analysis platform that provides technical analysis for traders and data-focused users. It completed a seed round of financing of US$1.2 million in January 2021, with participation from Polychain and others.
• giving block: Crypto donation marketplace, founded in 2018, was acquired by US-listed payments company Shift4 in March 2022, but has since maintained its autonomy and operates independently.
• coinshift: treasury management and infrastructure platform, provides financial management tools for DAO and Web3 companies, raised $2.5 million in seed round financing in October 2021, investors include Sequoia Capital India, Fintech Collective, Consensys Mesh, Defi Alliance, Volt Capital; US$15 million in Series A financing completed in May 2022, led by Tiger Global, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Volt Capital again.
• CoinLedger: Encrypted tax reporting platform, completed US$6 million in financing in February 2022, with participation from CMT Digital and others.
• Parcel: An Indian startup company designed to help DAO with financial management. In January 2021, it completed a pre-seed round of financing of US$500,000, with participation from Consensys and others.

other:

• Lines: Web3 social platform. In July 2022, it announced the completion of a US$4 million seed round of financing. Former Twitter Vice President Elad Gil led the investment, and Scalar Capital and others participated.
• Merkle Manufactory: The developer of the decentralized social network protocol Farcaster, founded by former Coinbase executive Dan Romero, announced the completion of US$30 million in financing in July 2022, with a16z leading the investment, 1confirmation, Scalar Capital, Coinbase Ventures and other participants cast.
• Matrix: Creates a cryptocurrency protocol for creators to gamify fan engagement and other digital brands. Completed $470,000 in pre-seed financing in June 2020.
• BAYZ: Web3 Game Guild, completed US$4 million in financing in December 2021, with Yield Guild Games leading the investment and BITKRAFT participating.