Successful Venture Capital Firm Lightspeed Set to Launch Cryptocurrency Fund

Even with the recent market downturn, a vast array of big whales are still interested in buying the dip. In the latest development, highly successful venture capital company Lightspeed Venture Partners, the solid rock behind Snap Inc., makers of the Snapchat messaging app, is now set to join the crypto bandwagon.

Lightspeed Crypto Fever

According to a Reuters report, Lightspeed Venture Partners, a U.S.-based VC firm that focuses on pumping funds into startups in the enterprise technology and consumer space, is looking to invest $1.8 billion in cryptocurrency startups and other businesses.

Lightspeed has always had a thing for early-stage investments, and in 2017, Jeremy Liew led the firm to become the first investor in a Snapchat seed round of $485,000 at the time.

Presently, Snapchat is worth roughly $2 billion with Lightspeed owning a significant part of the social media platform.

Earlier in March 2018, the 18-year-old Lightspeed Venture Partners drafted a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing to raise $1.8 billion from its investors. The funding round was hugely successful, and now, Reuters reports the firm is looking to carve out about $1.05 billion from its new war chest to create a separate fund that would invest in more established firms.

The VC is also set to broaden its horizons along the coast of Southeast Asia with investments in cryptocurrency and other technologies. Speaking about the positive development in May 2018, a Lightspeed spokesperson iterated that:

“We’ve been making many investments in the Fintech space over the past several years, including Affirm, Blockchain, Basis and more that are unannounced. Blockchain-based technologies are a huge area of interest for us, and we have partners focused on this. In terms of a dedicated crypto fund, we have nothing to announce at this time.”

Significant for Cryptos?

Lightspeed has a track record of funding startups to success. Importantly, in the last five years, about 17 initial public offerings (IPOs) have been organized by Lightspeed-backed firms. In essence, any crypto related business that the VC finds interest in would do great exploits in the global cryptosphere.

Despite the super volatile nature of blockchain-based digital assets, investment firms have been pumping money into the nascent space in recent times – a strong indication that cryptocurrencies have come to stay and it’s only matter of time before digital currencies go entirely mainstream.

Notably, on June 27, 2018, BTCManager reported that the renown Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz had launched a $300 million venture fund known as a16z, to invest in crypto-related startups and projects.