German VC Picus Capital commits to web3 with new investment arm

Quick Take

  • German VC Picus Capital, known for backing startups such as Nested and Omni, launched picus.xyz, a new web3 investment arm.
  • Picus Capital already backs web3 companies such as Spice, Stride and Arch.

German venture capital firm Picus Capital launched a dedicated web3 and crypto investment arm called picus.xyz.

"Picus.xyz is not only a sign of our long-term belief and commitment to web3, but also a means for us to more effectively communicate with the web3 community, and a way to aggregate all of our know-how and value-add to prospective partners," the company said in a blog post.

The new investment arm will stay close to the firm's core thesis of investing in the early pre-seed to Series A stages, targeting web3 infrastructure and consumer products. It will invest in both equity and tokens.

Founded in 2015, Picus Capital has made over 140 investments including in Nested, Omni and Gatherly. The firm has already backed a number of crypto startups including staking service Stride, artificial intelligence infrastructure platform Spice AI and crypto asset management service Arch.

"At picus.xyz we seek to partner with founders whose north star is the advancement of web3 and who are solving the hard problems in the way of the next billion users," the company said.

Picus Capital is known for offering dedicated teams for HR and operational support to founders. The new investment arm will offer similar support tailored to the idiosyncrasies of web3 such as token design, audit support and community management.

The investment team includes David Mirzazadeh, Daniel Niklas, Pierre Bourdan and Julius Nagel. They previously worked in the investment banking and consulting industries before joining Picus.


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About Author

Kari McMahon is a deals reporter at The Block covering startup fundraises, M&A, FinTech and the VC industry. Prior to joining The Block, Kari covered investing and crypto at Insider and worked as a python software developer for several years. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected]

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