Castle Island raises $250 million for third venture crypto fund

Castle Island Ventures, a venture firm, has raised $250 million for a fund aimed at backing blockchain startups building solutions in payments networks, financial services, and Web 3.0 internet infrastructure.

just the beginning! https://t.co/abVhguyspM pic.twitter.com/Puw7Xk7pID

— nic cartel ᵍᵐ (@nic__carter) February 16, 2022

According to the firm, investors in Castle Island Ventures III include special-purpose funds, asset managers, and family offices.

The firm was co-founded by two former Fidelity Investments employees, Nick Carter and Matt Walsh, and raised for its first two funds $30 million and $50 million respectively.

According to Walsh, at this stage Castle Island, in addition to pre-seed investments, will seek to lead more Series A rounds.

The company’s portfolio includes Bitwise, BlockFi, ErisX, Matrixpoint and CoinMetrics, of which Carter is a co-founder.

“There are simply more market opportunities now, and a wave of entrepreneurs starting projects. Our way of responding to the industry’s boom is to support a more aggressive deployment of capital in some of these companies by our team,” Walsh added.

According to Carter, even a long-term crypto bear market could benefit Castle Island. As an example, he cited the 2018 crypto winter, when the firm closed its first fund.

“If there is a sustained sell-off, largely driven by self-interest, I think it is a convenient time for us, because we do not believe that cryptocurrencies will disappear,” he stressed.

Earlier in December 2021, after the market fell from the November high, New York Digital Investment Group raised $1 billion in a record funding round for the industry.