White Star Capital, a global multi-stage technology venture capital investment platform, has held the final closing of its USD50 million Digital Asset Fund (DAF), a specialised fund investing in crypto-networks and blockchain-enabled businesses at each layer of the tech stack.
The fund exceeded its previously announced target by USD20 million and is backed by major institutional investors and corporations, including Bpifrance and Ubisoft.
“It’s critical that emerging crypto and blockchain-enabled start-ups receive investment from firms and professionals who have the experience and knowledge to help drive their businesses forward,” says Yoann Caujolle, Managing Director of Bpifrance. “We’re pleased to partner with the DAF team for bringing their support and vision into the French and European blockchain and digital asset ecosystem.”
The oversubscription speaks to the track record of White Star’s investment platform, which includes over USD700 million of assets under management and a global team with a presence across North America, Europe, and Asia. The DAF marks White Star Capital’s first specialised fund, hyper-focused on blockchain technology and digital assets. The fund is run by New York-based General Partner Sep Alavi and Principal investor Thomas Klocanas as well as Sanjay Zimmermann in Toronto.
“The team at White Star has strong expertise and understanding in bridging the gap between traditional venture, capital markets, and the digital asset space,” says Adam Reeds, Co-Founder, and CEO of Ledn. “The fund focuses on one of the fastest moving tech sectors while leveraging the firm’s global network to help its portfolio companies grow. From the first day, they’ve been a great partner who we can count on for the help and support we need to scale our business.”
The Digital Asset Fund (DAF) will deploy between USD500,000 and USD3 million in initial investments into 15-20 companies with a core focus in North America and Europe. The team takes a research-driven approach to maximize returns through early access in both equity and token investments. The fund has already made six investments, including dfuse, Multis, Paraswap, Rally, Ledn and Safello, a European crypto brokerage that went public on the Nasdaq First North stock exchange on 12 May.
“Over the past 20 years, we have digitised every form of information, from newspapers and books to music and movies,” says Sep Alavi, General Partner, Digital Asset Fund at White Star Capital. “With blockchain technology and digital assets, we are now digitising value and money as well as building an entirely new financial infrastructure. We are hyper-focused on this space, and we expect to see further innovative use cases such as crypto credit, DeFi, NFTs, metaverses and more manifesting at an accelerated pace. We strongly believe blockchain and digital assets represent a colossal opportunity to grow the digital economy and are actively investing in crypto protocols, infrastructure, privacy, financial, gaming and social use cases.”
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