Quick take:
- HashKey has closed its third fund with $500 million in commitments.
- The HashKey FinTech Investment Fund III will focus on crypto and blockchain opportunities globally.
- The fund primarily targets projects in blockchain infrastructure, tooling, and consumer-facing applications.
HashKey has closed its third fund with $500 million in commitments. The digital assets-focused venture capital firm said the new fund dubbed HashKey FinTech Investment Fund III will focus on crypto and blockchain opportunities globally.
HashKey has been one of the most active web3-focused venture capital firms despite the crypto winter. The company has concentrated its web3 venture investments on blockchain infrastructure and data protocols.
In December, HashKey was one of the investors in blockchain infrastructure and decentralised storage platform Nillion’s $20 million fundraising.
In October, the company also backed Hong Kong-based web3 payments infrastructure platform Reap’s $40 million round. HashKey is also an investor in Chainsafe, another web3 infrastructure firm. It also invested in the web3 data platform Space and Time in September last year.
Other notable projects backed by HashKey include Cosmos, Coinlist, Aztec, Blockdaemon, dYdX, imToken, Animoca Brands, Mask Network, FalconX, Polkadot, Moonbeam, Space and Time, and Galxe.
Fund III will be managed through general partner HashKey FinTech Investment, which is part of HashKey Capital. The fund received strong backing from sovereign wealth funds, corporations, and family offices.
The fund’s primary goal is to advance promising crypto and blockchain projects globally, with a key focus on emerging markets.
Commenting on the fundraising, Deng Chao, CEO of HashKey Capital and Head of HashKey Singapore said: “HashKey Capital has weathered at least three cycles in the industry. These unique experiences and insights will be invaluable to us in navigating through turbulence. We are one of the few crypto investors that have been granted a license for fund management involving digital assets in Hong Kong, with another approval in principle received for fund management in Singapore.”
Chao who also highlighted HashKey’s experience during times of market turbulence said the firm was one of the early supporters of crypto and blockchain technology. “We are pleased to continue to take on this responsibility and work with our partners to establish the gold standard for the industry’s sustainable growth.”
The past 13 months have seen the crypto industry shed a whopping $2 trillion in market cap after reaching an all-time high of about $3 trillion in November 2021. The effects of the crypto winter hit venture capital firms later in the time frame, with web3 funding slowing significantly beginning July 2022.
Things got worse in Q4 2022, with CrunchBase estimating a 74% decline in funding for web3 startups.
But HashKey having been one of the pioneers in backing crypto and blockchain technology projects continued to invest throughout the quarter as highlighted by the selected headlines.
The company also lays claim to have inspired the name ‘Shanghai Upgrade’ for Ethereum (a process that would make Layer 2 transactions on Ethereum several times cheaper and faster).
“As one of the earliest institutional investors in Ethereum and the host of Devcon2, we have maintained since the first day that the power of blockchain and crypto innovation can create a better future. Fund III will follow our time-tested investment principles while also looking for game-changers, which would be those that will propel the industry forward into the next stage.” said Dr. Xiao Feng, Chairman of HashKey Group.
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