Blockchain and digital asset investment firm Maven 11 Capital has closed a $120 million fund, its second crypto-focused fund. The fund will back infrastructure protocols, decentralized finance (DeFi) open source protocols and Web 3 applications.
Venture Fund II differs from Maven 11′s first fund in being closed-ended and having a wider group of backers, including wealthy individuals, crypto entrepreneurs, family offices and institutions. The new fund has already deployed investments into gaming-focused DAO Merit Circle, lending platform Maple Finance, layer 1 blockchain Anoma and DeFi dashboard Zapper, among others.
“The traditional venture structure of this new fund allows us to take a multi-year time horizon on our investments. This enables us to back protocols that need to grow from just a strong founder with an innovative idea towards a fully-fledged DAO or proven protocol with strong traction among developers and users,” said Maven 11 Partner Darius Rugys in a statement.
In an interview with CoinDesk, Rugys used Maple Finance as an example of how the firm works with companies it invests in. Maple Finance is a lending platform that specializes in liquidity pools made up of institutions. Maven 11 essentially acted as a pool manager for a group of borrowers and lenders. Rugys said his firm raised $150 million to $160 million for Maple Finance, and has a small team of employees working full-time on that project.
“We invest in them, we are working closely with founders and we’re doing extensive work for the protocol,” said Rugys.
The Amsterdam-based investment firm is also focusing on internal hiring, including for its research and portfolio growth teams, said Rugys.
Maven 11 Capital was founded in 2015 and has run a venture investment approach since 2017. The firm has previously backed layer 1 data firm Celestia, digital asset custody company Qredo, privacy-focused infrastructure firm Nym Technologies and creditworthiness protocol Spectral Finance.
