Kraken Ventures, the venture capital arm of Kraken, has raised $65 million for its first fund, which will invest in early-stage cryptocurrency and technology startups.
According to the press release, Kraken Ventures Fund I will focus on areas such as financial infrastructure, Web 3.0, DeFi, consumer crypto protocols, and enabling technologies — artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Kraken launched Kraken Ventures as an independent investment fund in February 2021. The company is led by former Chief Corporate Development Officer Brandon Gat.
The firm has already made a number of investments, including Blockdaemon, Anchorage, Messari, Hashflow, Acala and pStake.
“Our long-term view on investing and the ability to leverage Kraken’s experience in building a truly global scalable platform contributed to investor interest. We are now looking to put these funds to work and help some of the most innovative projects and their talented founders accelerate the development of their companies and protocols,” said Brandon Gat.
The fund targets initial investments of between $500,000 and $2 million.
Kraken Ventures is based in Austin, Texas, with part of the team based in London. As part of its global expansion, the firm recently appointed Lawrence de Porter, formerly vice president at Dawn Capital, as head of its European operation.
Earlier in November, the Kraken unit in the United Kingdom was granted a licence to operate in the country.
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