Backed by a16z and Tiger Global, what projects has Volt Capital invested in to make reverse investments?

Author: Zen, PANews

According to a report by Swiss investment consultant 21e6 Capital AG, as of August this year, 97 of the more than 700 cryptocurrency funds in the world have closed. This is not enough to attract capital.” The current “capital winter” inevitably makes people miss the past “brilliance” of encryption funds. For example, in the first half of last year, according to PANews statistics, a total of 107 Web3-related funds were launched around the world, with a total scale of nearly 40 billion US dollars, including Tiger Global and a16z, which raised tens of billions and 4.5 billion US dollars respectively. Both giants also backed a new venture capital venture called Volt Capital during this period.

In May last year, Volt Capital announced that it had raised $50 million for its second encryption fund and received support from a16z general partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon. Other supporters of the fund include Tiger Global, angel investor Elad Gil wait. As a venture capitalist focusing on early-stage start-ups, Volt Capital has made more than 30 investments in early-stage encryption companies and protocols such as Magic Eden, Nansen, LayerZero, Magic, Coinshift, Thirdweb, and Sound since 2020.

Post-90s founder Soona Amhaz pivots from crypto community to investment

Soona Amhaz, founder and general partner of Volt Capital, graduated from the University of Michigan School of Engineering. During her college years, she spent a lot of time on Reddit, and Bitcoin, which had begun to rise, was the main topic of her discussion. However, in Soona's view at the time, the cryptocurrency industry was not mature enough, and she was worried that she would not be able to have a long-term career in this field. Therefore, after she graduated from college in 2015, Soona chose to join Alation, a data intelligence solution provider, and became the company's 20th employee. At that time, Alation had just completed Series A financing with the support of a16z, DCVC and other institutions. It is a start-up with great potential (in November last year, Alation raised US$123 million at a valuation of US$1.7 billion).

Soona still pays close attention to the encryption industry after working. Since people mainly got news from Reddit, Coindesk and Twitter at that time, and the content and information were a bit messy, she came up with the idea of forming a vibrant, high-quality community that people could trust. In 2017, she co-founded the crypto community Token Daily and gained more than 16,000 readers without any marketing. They also actively held events with builders in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other vertical fields.

Over time, many projects began contacting her before launching, some seeking feedback on product strategy and talent from her and the community before raising funds, and for help with distribution and communication via newsletters. Gradually, Token Daily’s information network also became Soona’s interpersonal network. She got to know many excellent teams building potential projects in the encryption field and learned about project progress first. She realized she had an advantage when she saw huge amounts of money pouring into the crypto industry, and many projects she knew had potential received investment from investment institutions. After a period of personal investing, Soona finally decided to start her own fund, Volt Capital, in 2019.

It is worth mentioning that in the same year that Volt Capital was established, the financial crisis broke out in Lebanon. As of August this year, the cumulative inflation was as high as 4667%. Soona's family in Lebanon lost many assets as a result. Soona suggested that they convert their remaining assets into Bitcoin to protect themselves from further currency devaluation and currency controls, and she developed a deeper understanding of the value of cryptocurrencies.

Get support from top institutions and investors

In April 2021, Soona Amhaz, who had just been successfully selected into Forbes 30 under 30 in venture capital the previous year, announced that Volt Capital had launched its first fund and raised US$10 million for it. This fund is supported by well-known investors and investment institutions such as Web3 Venture Capital CMT Digital and former CTO of Coinbase and former general partner of a16z Balaji Srinivasan, as well as Union Square Ventures managing partner Albert Wenger and Founders Fund partner Brian Singerman. The funds raised are used to invest in encrypted data, infrastructure and DeFi startups.

In the first half of 2022, various investment institutions have successively announced the establishment of crypto funds, and even giants like a16z have directly launched the crypto fund "CryptoFundIV" with a scale of up to US$4.5 billion. Volt Capital also announced in May that it had raised $50 million for its second crypto fund and received support from a16z general partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon. Other backers of the fund include Tiger Global and angel investors. Elad Gil, hedge fund managers Brevan Howard and Albert Wenger. The fund is used to invest in crypto infrastructure, DeFi, NFT and DAO-related projects, and focuses on early pre-seed rounds, seed rounds and A-round equity financing.

Volt Capital’s investment portfolio at a glance

Corresponding to the time when the fund was launched, most of Volt Capital's investments are concentrated from the first quarter of 2021 to the third quarter of 2022. Its most recent investment project is the Web3 security company Spearbit announced in August this year, which completed a US$7 million investment financing, led by Framework Ventures; in addition, in May this year, crypto wallet as a service (WaaS) provider Magic announced that it had raised US$52 million in a strategic financing round led by PayPal Ventures as a seed investor in the project. Volt Capital once again participated in the investment.

According to public information collected by Volt Capital’s official website and PANews, Volt Capital has currently invested in at least 30 crypto projects. As mentioned above, its investment focuses on infrastructure and tools, NFT and digital asset tracks, including crypto wallets, DeFi, infrastructure layer, software development, data storage, security and privacy and other vertical segments, in addition. In addition to being the lead investor in the seed round of financing of NFT fraud detection startup Yakoa, all other rounds of investment were follow-up investments.

Below is a brief introduction to Volt Capital’s investment portfolio

Infrastructure and Tools

• Nansen: Blockchain analysis platform, announced in October 2020 that it has completed a $1.2 million seed round of financing, led by Mechanism Capital and Skyfall Ventures, with participation from Robot Ventures and Fabric Ventures.
• Magic: Crypto wallet as a service (WaaS) provider, in June 2020, Magic announced that it had raised US$4 million in a seed round led by Placeholder, with participation from Lightspeed Ventures, Volt Capital, etc., in 2023 In May it announced it had raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures, with participation from Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital.
• Cashmere: Solana ecological enterprise wallet management company, completed a US$3 million seed round of financing in August 2022, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Y Combinator and others.
• Liquality: A multi-chain wallet whose Liquality SDK aims to provide users with a seamless experience. It completed US$7 million in financing in August 2021, with participation from Hashed, Coinbase, etc.
• Thirdweb: Web3 software development company, in May 2021 announced the completion of financing of 5 million US dollars, Mark Cuban, Volt Capital founder Soona Amhaz participated in the investment, in August 2022 it completed another 24 million at a valuation of 160 million US dollars USD financing, led by Haun Ventures, participating investors include Coinbase Ventures and others.
• layerzero: Full-chain interoperability protocol
• Koop: Web3 protocol focusing on the creator economy. In August 2022, it announced the completion of US$5 million in financing. 1confirmation and iant Fund led the investment, and DeFi Alliancel and others participated.
• Penumbra Labs: Cosmos ecological privacy layer network, announced in November 2021 that it has completed a seed round of financing of 4.75 million US dollars, led by Dragonfly Capital, and participated by Robot Ventures and others.
• Spearbit: Web3 security company, announced in August 2023 that it had completed US$7 million in financing, led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Breed VC and Robot Ventures.
• Squads: DAO infrastructure project. In February 2022, it announced the completion of strategic financing of US$5 million. Multicoin Capital led the investment, and Jump Capital, Delphi Digital and others participated.
• KYVE: Decentralized data storage solution, completed pre-seed round financing of US$1 million in June 2021, with participation from Solana Foundation and others.
• Cozy Finance: A permission-required peer-to-peer protection solution so that users can invest in DeFi and prevent hackers, vulnerability exploitation, etc. It completed a US$2 million seed round of financing in September 2020, with participation from Dragonfly, Electric Capital, etc.

NFT

• Magic Eden: NFT trading platform
• sound: Decentralized music streaming platform
• center: NFT tool company, products include NFT rendering API and multi-chain interoperability auxiliary tools
• **Metahood: **Metaverse start-up company, announced in January 2023 that it has completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by 1confirmation, Neon DAO, The Sandbox co-founder Sébastien Borget and others participated in the investment.
• Pinata: A Web3 infrastructure provider focused on NFT. In August 2022, it announced the completion of US$21.5 million in financing, including US$18 million in Series A financing and US$3.5 million in seed round financing in 2021. The round of financing was co-led by Greylock and Pantera, Greylock and Offline Ventures, with participation from Volt Capital, OpenSea and Alchemy.
• MetaStreet: NFT mortgage lending liquidity provider, providing liquidity and scaling solutions for NFT mortgage platforms. In February 2022, it announced the completion of US$14 million in financing. The financing included 3 million in seed financing and 11 million in initial liquidity. This round was led by Dragonfly Capital, Ethereal Ventures, Sfermion, Nascent Capital, Delphi INFINFT, Alliance, etc. Participate in voting.
• Yakoa: NFT fraud detection startup, announced in November 2022 the completion of a US$4.8 million seed round of financing, co-led by Brevan Howard Digital, Volt Capital and Collab+Currency.
• Recur: NFT brand experience company, announced in April 2021 that it has completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by DeFi Alliance, with participation from IOSG Ventures, Delphi Digital, Volt Capital, etc. In September 2021, it announced that it had completed its Series A round of financing of US$50 million at a valuation of US$333 million, and Volt Capital participated again. A few days ago, RECUR announced that it will be completely closed on November 16, 2023.

Digital Assets

• slingshot: Decentralized trading platform (formerly known as DEX.AG)
• Parsec Finance: A DeFi and analysis platform that provides technical analysis for traders and data-focused users. It completed a seed round of financing of US$1.2 million in January 2021, with participation from Polychain and others.
• giving block: Crypto donation marketplace, founded in 2018, was acquired by US-listed payments company Shift4 in March 2022, but has since maintained its autonomy and operates independently.
• coinshift: treasury management and infrastructure platform, provides financial management tools for DAO and Web3 companies, raised $2.5 million in seed round financing in October 2021, investors include Sequoia Capital India, Fintech Collective, Consensys Mesh, Defi Alliance, Volt Capital; US$15 million in Series A financing completed in May 2022, led by Tiger Global, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Volt Capital again.
• CoinLedger: Encrypted tax reporting platform, completed US$6 million in financing in February 2022, with participation from CMT Digital and others.
• Parcel: An Indian start-up company that aims to help DAOs with financial management. In January 2021, it completed a pre-seed round of financing of US$500,000, with participation from Consensys and others.

other:

• Lines: Web3 social platform. In July 2022, it announced the completion of a US$4 million seed round of financing. Former Twitter Vice President Elad Gil led the investment, and Scalar Capital and others participated.
• Merkle Manufactory: The developer of the decentralized social network protocol Farcaster, founded by former Coinbase executive Dan Romero, announced the completion of US$30 million in financing in July 2022, with a16z leading the investment, 1confirmation, Scalar Capital, Coinbase Ventures and other participants cast.
• Matrix: Creating an encrypted currency protocol for creators, gamifying fan engagement and other digital brands, completed a pre-seed round of $470,000 in June 2020.
• BAYZ: Web3 Game Guild, completed US$4 million in financing in December 2021, with Yield Guild Games leading the investment and BITKRAFT participating.