North Island Ventures launches $125 million investment fund

Crypto-focused investment firm North Island Ventures is launching a new $125 million investment fund.

The company is looking to make 30 to 40 early-stage investments in emerging crypto and Web3 companies and protocols, it said in a statement Tuesday.

Initial investments will range between $250,000 and $3 million, the company said.

“We launched NIV in 2020 based on our belief that crypto is the next great enabling technology," said co-founder and managing partner at North Island Ventures Travis Scher. "The industry has advanced tremendously since then, but we believe the real potential of this technology has barely been realized."

NIV Fund II is North Island ventures' second new investment vehicle within the past year, the company said. North Island currently has around $300 million in total assets under management.

North Island ventures has invested in companies such as bug bounty platform Immunefi, blockchain interoperability protocol Axelar and BCB Group. 

"We’ve entered a multichain world, and have a strong thesis that the end-state of crypto is as an invisible, interoperable network-of-networks, where both users and developers don’t have to think about the underlying blockchain their assets and apps live on," Scher said.

North Island launched a $72 million crypto fund last year with the participation of investors like billionaires Paul Tudor Jones, recording artist and producer LL Cool J and SoFi CEO Anthony Noto, among others.

“NIV Fund II empowers us to continue partnering with extraordinary entrepreneurs aiming to build transcendent businesses," said co-founder and managing partner James Hutchins. "Supporting early-stage founders in their journeys is our true passion – and our broad network, honed research capabilities, and depth of experience enables us to add real value, helping founders take their businesses from the idea stage to launch, product-market fit, and maturity.