US-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners said it has launched a $250 million fund dedicated to the cryptocurrency space as it seeks to sharpen its focus on the industry as it matures.
The fund will invest in founders building companies across consumer crypto, decentralised finance (DeFi), infrastructure and other enabling technologies, said Bessemer Venture Partners in a blogpost.
Bessemer noted that the venture capital firm has already been making investments in the space.
"In 2017, before Web3 was making headlines, we made our first investment in NYDIG (a technology and financial services firm dedicated to Bitcoin for institutions)," it said.
Since then, Bessemer has partnered with nine crypto companies, including, MakersPlace, Sorare and TRM Labs.
"It’s clear that we’re now at the onset of the next seismic shift: a new iteration of the web built on blockchain technology. Web3 is an ecosystem that we believe has several decades of transformation ahead of it, and one we’re passionate about partnering with the most talented founders forging this new future," it added.
Other global and Indian venture capital firms have also been investing in the crypto and Web3 space and of late have been sharpening their focus on the industry.
Sequoia Capital India made 19 investments in Web 3 startups in the second half of last calendar year, Rajan Anandan, managing director, of the multi-stage venture capital firm said in December.
Accel has also invested in the space and in a recent interaction with VCCircle, Shekhar Kirani, Partner, Accel, said that Accel is excited about Web3 but it is also making sure that the companies that it invests in are of high quality and compliant with regulatory norms.
Bessemer Venture Partners also launched BessemerDAO, a Web3 community for founders, creators, and operators.
BessemerDAO aims to help the community stay ahead of major shifts and trends in Web3, among others.
The venture capital firm has been investing in India since 2006. The venture capital firm raised a new dedicated India fund with a corpus of $220 million in November last year. Besides the dedicated India fund, Bessemer will also continue to back Indian startups through its global pools of capital.
Bessemer Venture Partners's investments in India include startups such as PharmEasy, BigBasket, Swiggy, Urban Company and Perfios.
The venture capital firm has seen seven initial public offerings (IPOs) from its India portfolio including Home First Finance, IEX and Matrimony.com, and today has five companies within its portfolio valued at more than $1 billion, including Livspace and MyGlamm.
