Crypto VC Lemniscap raises $70 million for third fund

Lemniscap, a crypto-focused venture capital firm, has raised a new fund worth $70 million to invest in early-stage startups.

The fund is anchored by Accolade Partners, a U.S.-based fund of funds, Lemniscap said Wednesday. Other limited partners of the fund include undisclosed high-net-worth individuals and founders of Lemniscap's portfolio companies, Roderik van der Graaf, founder and managing partner of Lemniscap, told The Block.

"This is our third fund," van der Graaf said. "The first close was in late 2023, with the last closing in mid-2024."

The fund was oversubscribed, prompting Lemniscap to turn down interest due to its $70 million hard cap, according to van der Graaf. He declined to comment on the extent of the oversubscription, noting that those were soft commitments.

Lemniscap's first two funds were also in the "8-figure range," van der Graaf said, declining to comment on the funds' specific sizes, but he said that the latest fund is the largest to date. Van der Graaf declined to comment on Lemniscap's assets under management or AUM.

Lemniscap's third fund

Van der Graaf said the new fund is segment-agnostic, with primary focus areas including zero-knowledge infrastructure, consumer applications, the Bitcoin ecosystem, security and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs). The fund's average check size per investment ranges from $1 million to $2 million, and it is expected to be fully deployed within two years, van der Graaf said. So far, the fund has completed around 20 deals, with Lemniscap leading or co-leading the majority, he added.

Some of those 20 deals include Aligned Layer, LN Markets, Legitimate, Fjord Foundry, Farworld, Irys, Gattaca/Titan Builder, Impervious and Lita, van der Graaf said.

Since its founding in 2017, Lemniscap has made a total of over 130 investments across its three funds. Some of its notable portfolio companies include Avalanche, The Graph, Axelar, StepN, EigenLayer, Puffer, Monad and Anoma. Lemniscap said that its foundational market thesis and investment rationale have remained consistent despite periods of market volatility and regulatory uncertainty.

Several crypto VCs have recently raised or are in the process of raising new funds. Paradigm raised $850 million for its third fund in June. Pantera Capital is looking to raise $1 billion for its Fund V. Meanwhile, CMT Digital looks to raise $150 million for its fourth crypto fund. Venture investors have already put over $8.4 billion into crypto startups globally so far this year, according to The Block Pro's Funding Dashboard. Last year, total investment was about $11 billion, per the dashboard.

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