Venture capital investments in cryptocurrency startups up 316% in 2018

Venture capital investments in cryptocurrency startups up 316% in 2018

From Cryptomorrow.com by David Kariuki Nov 23, 2018

A recent report by Outlier Ventures reveals that venture capital investments in the cryptocurrency industry attained a year-over-year growth of 316% to $2.85 billion from $900 million through the three quarters of 2018.

This indicates that more startups in the blockchain and cryptocurrency are turning to more traditional forms of funding even as the number of initial coin offerings or ICOs continued to decrease and raise lesser total amount of capital especially in the third quarter of this year. Of course, the report agrees with previous reports that many startups are now using a mix model of raising capital including ICOs and venture funding.

Outlier Ventures, for instance, says that in the 119 venture capital deals completed in Q3 of this year, venture capital share was the highest in total compared to the total in other quarters this year. VCs within the United States continue to drive these venture capital investments in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The report states that with capital investments shifting away from tech-savvy retail investors toward VCs, hedge funds and ultimately larger institutional investors, "a large growth" in (startups) new businesses and services that are enabling institutional investors to enter the industry. Those new businesses and services are coming in the form of institutional-grade trading platforms, custody providers, etc that want to solve the technical complexity and risks of dealing with blockchain and crypto such as risk of users losing private keys.

A previous report last month from market research group Diar also indicated venture capital raised by blockchain and cryptocurrency startups had increased three-fold to $3.8 billion in 2018 compared to last year's total. This amount was raised from 2,000 investors (most from U.S. based dealmakers) across 384 deals. The report by Outlier Ventures says some startups in cryptocurrency and blockchain that do not require networks (online communities) to survive, have been avoiding token generation events called ICOs because of increasing legal expenses, marketing costs and community building efforts required. Of course, a lot of decrease in popularity of ICOs has come as a result of bear cryptocurrency market as being witnessed currently. ICOs, according to the new report, raised $1 billion down from $3.8 billion in Q1 representing a 74% decline since the start of the year.

That does not mean the token is unpopular: the report says that startups still believe that the tokens are foundational to Web 3.0 infrastructure and represent the opportunity for new business models. The role of the token is also evolving beyond fund raising into a model for business innovation and could expand as a way to engage, retain and attract users. The latter is being witnessed with chat apps like Kik, Telegram and Line implementing tokens.

Additionally, according to the report, FinTech innovation around crypto and blockchain is still alive and hot. For instance, there was introduction of a blockchain phone in the third quarter from HTC. Evolution of blockchain-based mobile devices and smartphones is expected to help reduce the "leak of personal data from phones and combine secure enclave security with blockchain-based verification and authentication systems." It says that future iterations of retail mobile devices will integrate blockchains as a method to " authenticate third parties accessing private data of individuals." Currently, the new hotness is zero knowledge according to the new report, with enterprises becoming further interested in zero knowledge proofs (ZKP) that for instance enable private transactions, authentication of entries on the ledger, and the verification of claims "without necessarily requiring access to the data itself."

Banking and financial institutions continue to lead in blockchain innovations as their fin-tech programs capitalize on blockchain-based open source projects according to the report.

The author is of the opinion that reduction in volatility could have resulted from "accumulation of tokens by larger more established players and retail investors (who are) no longer panic selling." The author notes that the current bear market, which has seen the market collapse from a high of $829bn in early January to currently around $200bn, is "very unattractive" for active cryptocurrency traders.
According to the report, a lack of volatility for tokens has resulted to a drop in daily volumes from over $20 billion to slightly over $10 billion this quarter.

It says that a rise in alternative investment instruments in the market such as DARs from Citi Bank could further reduce the volume of Bitcoin futures contracts, which has already fallen this year and whose launch (CBOE's) "has not necessarily done much to positively impact the price of the token." Bitcoin futures are struggling partly because of the "heavy expenses involved in taking and maintaining positions."

The new report by Outlier Ventures does reiterate the role of and development of regulation around blockchain and crypto topics: more countries continue to make decisive regulatory determinations relating to the issue, and "forward-looking" countries have started to engage with "regional banking entities" to create a regulatory environment that captures the "vast economic gains." France, Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland and Thailand have pushed for the creation of ecosystems that enable token issuance this past quarter. Japan’s Financial Services Agency also enabled self-regulation of the industry through the ‘Virtual Currency Exchange Association. The UK, France and Switzerland are also exploring possibilities of enabling the token economy.

Source: http://www.cryptomorrow.com/

Crypto Startup Funding Bubble has Burst

'Unsustainable' crypto startup funding bubble has burst

From Yahoo Finance UK by Oscar Williams-Grut Nov. 15, 2018

The “initial coin offering” (ICO) funding market is being crushed by the “crypto winter”, according to two new reports.

ICOs are where startups and projects raise money by issuing digital coins or tokens, similar to bitcoin, in exchange for real money. The majority of tokens are snapped up by ordinary retail investors, cutting out venture capitalists and other early-stage institutional investors.

The fundraising method emerged in 2017 and almost 500 projects raised more than $5bn (£3.8bn) through ICOs last year. ICOs continued to be popular at the start of 2018, with the total raised through the method surpassing 2017 levels in April. But the market has since collapsed as cryptocurrency prices dived.

Reports from ICORating, an independent crypto ratings agency, and Outlier Ventures, a blockchain and crypto-focused venture capital firm, show that the third quarter was brutal for the market.

The amount of money raised and quality of startups declines, returns on investments were negative, and apparent scams have become commonplace.

The reports show:

• Startups raised 48% less through ICOs in the third quarter compared to the second.
• 75% of startups trying to raise money had nothing but an idea.
• The average return from ICO tokens in the quarter was -22%.
• 64% of attempted ICOs failed.
• 19% of companies that raised money through ICOs in the third quarter have deleted their websites and social media accounts, suggesting they were scams.

Outlier Venture’s report blamed the “crypto winter” for part of the slowdown, while ICORating said it expects to see projects go bust in the coming months.

On the slide: The number of ICOs and amount raised through the method has been steadily declining since May. Photo: ICORating.

“We expect some strongly hyped projects which raised significant funding to actually fail for a variety of reasons – due to being compromised as scams, to conflicts between founders, failure to deliver the promised technology or a failure of solutions offered to be widely adopted,” ICORating’s report said.

Jamie Burke, the founder and CEO of Outlier Ventures, told Yahoo Finance UK: “We knew what was happening towards the end of last year was unsustainable. The reason it was unsustainable was a lot of it was not tied to underlying value. Being more technically involved in the industry, we were aware that the hype was running ahead of technology.”

The majority of projects that raise money through ICOs rely on blockchain technology in some form or another. However, Burke said that the infrastructure is not yet developed enough to support many of the ideas that projects raised money for last year.

“The market got a bit of itself,” Burke said. “All the possibilities that blockchains and distributed ledgers offered, everybody rushed to try and realise those and the capital rushed to follow them. But the reality is the technical cycle is much further behind the market cycle.”

‘A vast number are scams’
ICORating’s report found scams are increasingly common in the market: 19% of ICO projects from the third quarter have already deleted their social network accounts and websites, suggesting they were scams. The projects collectively raised $62m, 3% of the total $1.8bn raised through ICOs in the third quarter.

“The key problem with ICOs is that a vast number of them are scams or scam-like projects,” the report said, noting that there has been an “an increasing lack of transparency from ICO teams/projects” that makes it harder to tell the good from the bad.

However, Burke said: “A large majority of ICOs shouldn’t have ICOed full-stop. Now, does that make them a fraud? I don’t think so. 90% of startups fail in their first three years. The numbers pretty much mirror traditional early-stage ventures.”

Outlier Venture’s report found that venture capital is increasingly filling the void left by ICOs when it comes to digital token-based projects. VCs have invested almost $3bn in these projects in 2018, which is “more venture capital inflow than all previous years combined,” according to Outlier Ventures.

“Although the number and size of public token fundraises has reduced, startups, corporates and regulators continue to believe that tokens are foundational to Web 3.0 infrastructure and represent the opportunity for new business models,” Outlier Ventures’ report said.

Burke said: “We don’t see ICOs as dead. They are just evolving as the industry professionalises.“

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unsustainable-crypto-startup-funding-bubble-burst-080005455.html

VC Funding: Turning it Down Might Be Good for Your Business

Why Not Getting VC Funding Might Be Better for Your Business

Here's why lifestyle businesses appeal to so many entrepreneurs.

From Entrepreneur.com by Jim Price, Nov. 6, 2018

When I started teaching a new venture creation elective to MBAs 15 years and over 2,000 students ago, I'd tell my student teams they each had to come up with -- and develop a compelling plan for -- a (theoretically) VC-backable startup concept. Made sense, right? MBAs wanted to be part of building the Next Big Thing, and venture capital-backed startups had driven a massive tech boom over the prior decade -- a wave I'd been lucky enough to ride.

But, it didn't take me long to ease up on that "it's gotta be VC-backable" requirement. Looking back, I had three reasons for that shift:

Startup lessons tend to apply across the board: First, folks immersed in the action-based learning exercise of mapping out a startup consistently reported back, after reentering the workforce, that they were able to apply those learnings and frameworks to almost any entrepreneurial -- or intrapreneurial -- experience in their careers.

Many people find low-tech businesses more appealing: Second, a lot of teams would come up with quite interesting but low-tech startup ideas. As I discussed in my recent article, "Who Would Invest in Your Startup, and Why?," low-tech businesses rarely represent interesting investments to VCs, primarily because of low valuation multiples (often due to limited growth upside).

A vanishingly small proportion of all startups raise VC financing: Finally, I looked at the numbers and realized that most startups -- indeed, even most very successful startups -- do not raise money from venture capitalists. According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 saw approximately 556,000 business applications from corporations (what they call CBAs) in the U.S. (That's only about 18 percent of all new business applications, to make sure we're not counting sole proprietorships, two- to three-person professional services practices, and so on.) Meanwhile, Venture Monitor data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association tells us that, during the same period, U.S. "first financings" from VCs (as opposed to follow-on financings) numbered 2,676, or less than one-half of 1 percent of new corporations started. Now granted, first financings from VCs will tend to occur one to three years after a company first incorporates, but the statistics year-to-year are similar enough that the proportionality doesn't change in a meaningful way.

But, what I teach and how I teach it completely aside, my real "a-ha" has been a growing appreciation for non-VC-backable startups and how they can represent a genuinely appealing path for many entrepreneurs. Let's look at the positive side of the ledger for so-called lifestyle businesses:

Ownership and control
Raising equity financing from VCs -- or, for that matter, angels -- comes with a downside that few talk about: pressure to achieve a liquity event (sale of the company or IPO) within a fairly short time horizon (we're talking three to six years, typically). Since your company needs to be pretty massive to go public, we're really talking about pressure to sell the company. If you don't raise equity financing, you're in far better control of your own destiny. If you're in a reasonably protected niche, you've got the luxury of time to grow at a more leisurely pace. It's also up to you as to whether you want a board or directors and/or advisory board, and whom you want to invite to join.

Less dependency and greater chances of success
On the one hand, you'll need to fund your lifestyle businesses through savings, credit cards, friend-and-family loans, bank lines of credit, small business loans and the like. And while it may sound sexier to load up on lots of VC rocket fuel for your startup, as we've discussed, that funding path assumes you'll be one of the select few who's successful in attracting VC investment, and it comes with outside pressure to "go big or go home" and sell the company. So in general, you can think of well-crafted lifestyle businesses as being lower upside, but also lower risk. Taking the lifestyle business route, you stand a higher chance of getting airborne and achieving some level of success.

More options in life
If you own and control the business, you can decide the degree to which you choose to grow it aggressively to maximize cash flow or wealth, versus taking a more casual approach. Perhaps you'll decide to build the business to a certain plateau and then simply manage it for free cash flow that makes work an option. And, building a lifestyle business in this fashion by no means precludes eventually selling the company if you choose -- or, alternatively, handing it down to your kids some day.

You can still leverage technology.
Whereas a lot of lifestyle businesses are low-tech in nature, increasingly, we're finding that even those entrepreneurs are creatively leveraging technology to successfully launch, grow and become more profitable. Social media campaigns, search-optimized websites, customer newsletters and referral networks can all play a crucial role. And behind the scenes, smart lifestyle entrepreneurs are exercising the muscle of low-cost, online tools for everything from brand management to accounting and finance, inventory control, customer relationship management, point-of-sale tools and HR management.

Building a VC-backed startup can be bracing and both personally and financially rewarding. Been there, got the t-shirt. But, nobody's going to feel sorry for you if you get your lifestyle startup to the point where you've created life options such as hiring a general manager and calling in from the lake house a couple of times a week to check in.

Source:  https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322417

Blockchain Capital Funding is Growing - Venture Capital Top 20

Top 20 Venture Capital Firms Investing in Blockchain Companies

CryptoFundResearch from June 2018

What are the top venture capital firms investing in blockchain companies and startups? This is not as simple of a question as it may first appear. What exactly is a “top” blockchain VC?  Total blockchain assets? Total number of blockchain investments? How long or how actively they’ve been investing in blockchain companies?

There’s no obvious way to rank the top venture investors in blockchain. So we included all of the above components in our rankings. You can see details of our methodology here.

The short answer is these are the 20 most important and influential venture capital companies investing in blockchain and cryptocurrency companies. They are ranked according to four key criteria: value of total blockchain investments, total number of blockchain investments, length of blockchain investment experience, and level of investment activity in the last 12 months.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom for a variety of charts, graphs, and other resources to help visualize the world of venture capital investment in blockchain and crypto.

Top 50 Blockchain VCs – Key Stats

# of Blockchain Deals, Total: 556
# of Blockchain Deals, Last 12 Months (through 6/15/2018): 282
Overall Deal Volume, Total: $1.19 billion USD
Average Deal Size: $2.1 million USD
Average # of Co-Investors: 5
Most Common Deal Type: Seed funding
Most Active Blockchain Investor: Digital Currency Group
% Investing Exclusively in crypto/blockchain assets: 34%

Top 50 Blockchain Venture Capital Firms

#1 Digital Currency Group
Digital Currency Group DCG crypto fund
Description: Digital Currency Group is clearly the most influential venture capital investor in the blockchain space. Based in New York, Digital Currency Group has made more investments in blockchain companies, and for more money, than any other investor. Not only was Digital Currency Group one of the first blockchain investors, they have made more blockchain investments in the last 12 months (15) than all but 9 other VCs have made over any period.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 58
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $78 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Basis, Ledger, Circle, Blockchain Inc.
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: Yes
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 15
Based in: New York, NY
Website: http://dcg.co

#2 Pantera Capital
Pantera Capital crypto fund
Description: Pantera barely edged out Blockchain Capital for the number two spot on our list. Based in Menlo Park where the Bay Area’s tech and VC worlds collide, Pantera ranked in the top 10 in all four criteria we looked at for our rankings. Unlike most of the pure venture capital funds on this list, Pantera is a hybrid hedge fund / venture fund making seed investments in blockchain companies as well as investing in tokens and cryptocurrencies.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 31
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $65 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Basis, Circle, Harbor, DMarket
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: Yes
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 13
Based in: Menlo Park, CA
Website: https://www.panteracapital.com

#3 Blockchain Capital
Blockchain Capital crypto fund
Description: Blockchain Capital came in a close third on our rankings of the top venture capital investors in blockchain. Like Digital Currency Group and Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital is a pure blockchain venture fund. Their first investment in blockchain came in late 2013 with their Series A investment in BTCC, the world’s oldest Bitcoin trading platform, and since that time has made more blockchain investments than anyone but Digital Currecncy Group. Blockchain Capital is based in San Francisco, CA.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 37
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $71 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Circle, Coinbase, Blockstream, Ripple
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: Yes
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 12
Based in: San Francisco, CA
Website: http://blockchain.capital

#4 Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
andreessen horowitz ventures crypto fund
Description: Andreessen Horowitz, also know as a16z, is one of the world’s largest venture capital firms, and the first VC on our list to not invest almost exclusively in blockchain and digital assets. In fact, digital assets make up only a fraction of a16z’s more than $4 billion in assets. Andreessen got their start in blockchain investing in 2013 with an angel investment in Ripple followed by early stage venture funding of Coinbase. Since then, they have made nearly a dozen other blockchain investments in companies like Basis, Harbor, and Chia Networks. Look for Andreessen to move even farther up this list with their recent announcement of their $300 million crypto-focused fund.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 14
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $55 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Basis, Coinbase, DFINITY, Harbor
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No (but recently launched fund focused on digital assets)
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 9
Based in: Menlo Park, CA
Website: https://www.a16z.com

#5 Node Capital
Node Capital Crypto Fund LogoDescription: Unlike other top venture funds on our list that primarily make seed and series A investments in blockchain companies, Node Capital primarily invests via initial coin offerings (ICOs). Node Capital is based in Beijing and has made most of its nearly two dozen blockchain investments in Chinese startups like Fengwo and ChinaUp.com. They have been the most active blockchain investor over the last 12 months. Node was co-founded by Jun Du, CEO of Cointime.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 22
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $20 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Trip.io, HuoBi, Delphy Foundation, Fengwo
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: Yes
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 21
Based in: Beijing, China
Website: http://www.nodecap.com

#6 Boost VC
Boost VC crypto fund
Description: Boost VC is an artificial intelligence, blockchain, and crypto accelerator based in San Mateo, California. Boost began its foray into blockchain investments in 2014 with a seed round in Ripio. Since then, they have made more than 30 additional investments in crypto and blockchain including almost a dozen in the last 12 months, making them one of the world’s most active venture capital / accelerators in blockchain.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 32
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $67 million
Top Blockchain Investments: BlockCypher, Tezos, Ledger, Coinbase
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 11
Based in: San Mateo, CA
Website: https://www.boost.vc/

#7 IDG Capital
IDG Capital crypto venture and private equity fund logoDescription: IDG Capital is a private equity and venture capital fund based in New York. Like Boost VC, they invest in a variety of companies and not exclusively in blockchain and crypto assets. IDG got its start in blockchain with a Series A investment in Ripple in 2013, though they typically make later stage venture investments. IDG Capital made few other blockchain investments until 2018 when they made investments in Huoxing 24, Circle, imToken, and Mars Finance in just the first five months of the year. In addition to their main New York office, IDG has a satellite office in Bangalore, India.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 8
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $31 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Ripple, Circle, Mars Finance, imToken
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 4
Based in: New York, NY
Website: http://en.idgcapital.com

#8 Draper Associates
Draper Associates blockchain venture capital fundDescription: Draper Associates is based in San Mateo, CA and led by legendary venture investor Tim Draper. Draper makes early stage venture investments in a variety of technology, manufacturing, and healthcare companies including blockchain companies and startups.  Their first investment in blockchain came with a 2014 seed investment in Augmate, an IoT and wearables company focused on enterprise.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 17
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $25 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Coinbase, Ledger, Factom, CryptoMove
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 6
Based in: San Mateo, CA
Website: http://www.draper.vc

#9 Ceyuan Ventures
Ceyuan Ventures blockchain venture fundDescription: Ceyuan Ventures is an early stage VC based in Beijing, China, with an additional office in Hong Kong. They primarily invest in technology companies and have made a half dozen significant blockchain investments in companies like Basis, Mars Finance and Trip.io. Their first blockchain investment came in 2014, and, after making no new blockchain investments in 2016 and 2017, made four in the first half of 2018.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 6
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $36 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Basis, Mars Finance, Trip.io, OkCoin
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 4
Based in: Beijing, China
Website: http://www.ceyuan.com/en/index.html

#10(T) Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners crypto fundDescription: Lightspeed is a global venture capital firm based in Menlo Park with six additional offices including in Israel, China, and India. They primarily invest in consumer and enterprise sectors and have also made several investments in blockchain companies like Basis and Ripple. They are also made an early investment in BTC China via LIghtspeed China Partners.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 6
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $24 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Basis, Blockchain Inc., Saga Foundation, BTCC
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 3
Based in: Menlo Park, CA
Website: http://lsvp.com

#10(T) Techstars
Techstars blockchain venture capital fundDescription: Techstars is a venture capital and technology company accelerator based in Boulder, Colorado. Their entry into blockchain investing came with a seed round investment in Chroma in 2013. Since then, Techstars has made more than three dozen additional, mostly small, investments in blockchain companies.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 37
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $3 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Filament, Tok.tv, Storj Labs, Chainalysis
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 17
Based in: Boulder, CO
Website: https://www.techstars.com

#12 RRE Ventures
RRE top crypto venture fundDescription: RRE is a venture capital firm based in New York. They invest in technology, media, and financial services companies. RRE began investing in blockchain with a 2013 seed investment in Paxos followed by seed and angel rounds in Gem the following year. In total, RRE Ventures has made angel, seed, and series A and B investments in a dozen blockchain and crypto companies and startups.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 12
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $32 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Paxos, Ripple, Abra, Gem
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 2
Based in: New York, NY
Website: http://www.rre.com/

#13 Union Square Ventures
Union Square Ventures crypto fundDescription: Next on the list of top venture funds investing in blockchain is Union Square Ventures. USV is one that many may have expected to rank a bit higher on our list. Along with Sequoia, they were one of the most prominent venture funds to be involved in early investing in blockchain companies. However, they have not been as active of late as many newer entrants and blockchain-specific funds. USV is based in New York, NY.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 9
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $28 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Coinbase, CryptoKitties, Polychain Capital
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 3
Based in: New York, NY
Website: https://www.usv.com/

#14 General Catalyst
General Catalyst crypto venture fundDescription: General Catalyst is a venture capital firm based in Cambridge, MA. They typically make early stage investments in technology companies. They have made series A, B, C, and D investments in Circle, a crypto finance company. In March of 2018 General Catalyst closed a nearly $1.4 billion fund, its largest to date.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 6
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $28 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Circle, Bitwise, Bluzelle
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 2
Based in: Cambridge, MA
Website: http://generalcatalyst.com

#15 Liberty City Ventures
Liberty City Ventures crypto fundDescription: Liberty City Ventures is a seed stage venture capital firm based in New York, NY. Founded in 2012, Liberty City made it’s first blockchain investment in late 2013 with seed funding for Paxos. They have participated in multiple funding rounds for both Paxos and Libra. In May, 2018 Liberty City announced its Digital Currency Fund had raised $15 million and would invest exclusively in cryptocurrency startups.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 5
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $29 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Paxos, Libra
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: Yes (via Digital Currency Fund)
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 2
Based in: New York, NY
Website: https://www.libertycityventures.com/

#16 500 Startups
500 Startups blockchain VC fundDescription: 500 Startups is an early stage VC and incubator fund based in San Francisco, CA. They have invested in well over 1,000 companies. Among their many startup investments are several blockchain companies including Libra Credit Network, BlockCypher, and Hijro. 500 Startups is led by its CEO, Christine Tsai. In early 2018, 500 Startups announced it would team with Houbi Labs to create a blockchain track program to help blockchain entrepreneurs.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 16
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $5 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Libra Credit Network, BlockCypher, Hijro, Stably Blockchain Lab
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 4
Based in: San Francisco, CA
Website: https://500.co

#17 DHVC (Danhua Capital)
dhvc blockchain vc fundDescription: Danhua Capital (DHVC) is a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, CA. DHVC primarily makes early stage investments in technology companies including almost two dozen investments in blockchain startups. DHVC has really picked up the pace of their blockchain investments this year. In just the first six months of 2018 they have made 15 seed and venture investments in blockchain companies like Hash World, Mainframe, and CertiK.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 21
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $20 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Libra Credit Network, Hedera Hashgraph, Origin Protocol
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 19
Based in: Palo Alto, CA
Website: http://www.danhuacap.com/

#18 Kindred Ventures
Kindred Ventures top blockchain venture capital fundDescription: Kindred Ventures is an angel/VC fund based in San Francisco and San Diego, CA.  They invest in early stage companies including at least a half dozen blockchain companies. Kindred was founded by Steve Jang in 2014.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 6
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $15 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Radar Relay, TruStory, dYdX, Rare Bits
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 5
Based in: San Diego, CA
Website: https://kindredvc.com

#19 Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital crypto venture fundDescription: Some might be surprised to see Sequoia so far down the list of the top venture capital firms investing in blockchain. For one, Sequoia is one of California’s best know venture firms. They have also been in the news regarding blockchain with a high profile lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance. Sequoia has also been involved in some high profile deals, but not as many as some of the top players on our list.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 8
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $12 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Guanguan Coin, String Labs, Binance
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No
Blockchain Investments, Last 12 Months: 5
Based in: Menlo Park, CA
Website: www.sequoiacap.com

#20(T) Future Perfect Ventures
Future Perfect Ventures vc crypto fundDescription: Future Perfect Ventures (FPV) is an early stage venture capital firm based in New York, NY. FPV’s portfolio mostly consists of blockchain and crypto companies like Abra, BitPesa, Harbor, Blockchain Inc. and others. FPV was founded by Jalak Jobanputra.

Total Blockchain Company Investments: 11
Value of Venture Investments in Blockchain: $15 million
Top Blockchain Investments: Blockstream, Blockchain Inc., Harbor, Abra
Exclusively Invests in Blockchain/Digital Assets: No, but mostly

To see the list of all top 50 firms, visit the link below.

Source: https://cryptofundresearch.com/top-50-venture-capital-firms-investing-blockchain-companies/

Blockchain Investments to Watch in Late 2018

6 Promising ICOs In Late 2018

InvestInBlockchain.com by Matt Laxen August 31, 2018

The meteoric rise of Bitcoin in late 2017 brought with it an explosion of companies running crowdsales in the form of ICOs. While the entire market has cooled off since then, ICOs are still turning heads, and investors are almost guaranteed to be more selective with their investments this year.

Among the thousands of cryptocurrencies that will end up worthless, the chances of finding a project with a strong use case and competent team are diminished, since there are only so many problems to solve with blockchain.

It’s becoming easier than ever to create your own token, publish a website and whitepaper, and launch a crowdsale. We at Invest in Blockchain have researched ICOs scheduled for the end of 2018, and there are a few that stand out to us as worth a second look. However, it’s necessary to remind potential investors to do their due diligence — as always, never invest more than you’re willing to lose.

With all that said, here are our top 6 ICO picks scheduled for the end of 2018, listed in chronological order.

Disclaimer: This is not professional financial advice, and you should always use multiple sources for information while doing your own research. Investing in ICOs is a high-risk endeavor.

CitiCash

CitiCash is a cryptocurrency that’s placed simplicity and user-friendliness at the forefront of its design. As much as cryptocurrency gained public awareness at the end of 2017, the general public still isn’t all that interested for a couple reasons.

As explained in the CitiCash whitepaper, the majority of people simply don’t understand what cryptocurrencies are, and that poses a major roadblock when it comes to mass adoption. Another common rebuttal among skeptics (and rightfully so), is that you can’t pay for everyday goods and services with it. While that’s changing rapidly, at the moment there’s little incentive for the average individual to switch from fiat to crypto.

In order to make the transition as easy as possible, CitiCash is developing a network between their wallets and established debit card technologies. Upon request, users will be provided a debit card that’s linked to their CitiCash wallet, which automatically converts funds into the respective fiat currency of the vendor receiving payment.

CitiCash will also offer the simple conversion of their native token into any other cryptocurrency, with all the work being done on the backend, maximizing ease of use for customers of all levels of tech saviness.

CitiCash ICO
The CitiCash ICO will start on September 1, 2018, and will last 1 month or until sold out. 130 million CitiCash coins (CCH) will be available for the public sale, with a minimum purchase set at 10 CCH. Each coin will be worth $0.15, and no whitelisting is necessary to participate. All unsold coins will be frozen in the CitiCash wallet for 1 year, then used for further expansion of the project.

After 1 billion CCH are released into the market over a span of 20 years, an algorithmic inflation process will begin, releasing an additional 2,103,840 CCH into the market. The CitiCash team explains in their whitepaper that “this will ensure that the total coin supply will not shrink due to coins being lost by their owners over time.”

Humancoin

Humancoin is what happens when philanthropy gets decentralized. The majority of us have been subjected to late-night commercials of sad-looking dogs complete with music meant to stir our emotions into opening our wallets. While there are legitimate nonprofits operating this way, trust in charities has dropped in recent years after scandals involving humanitarian charities were brought to light.

The Humancoin team is creating a blockchain solution for donors and recipients of funds worldwide. The inherently transparent nature of cryptocurrency makes them a perfect means of transaction for philanthropic industries. According to the Humancoin whitepaper, there are 3 main reasons that people who are ready to donate to change their minds:

• Lack of trust in charities, and doubts that their contribution will reach the recipient on time and in full due to a lack of international charity regulation.
• Cross-border payment complexity and potential issues dealing with foreign governments.
• The inability to see any additional benefits from making a donation.

To tackle these problems, Humancoin plans to focus their effort on the collaboration of charity, eCommerce, and cryptocurrency markets.

Humancoin ICO
The Humancoin ICO starts September 15, 2018 and ends November 1, 2018. Slightly more than half (50.9%) of the total 6 billion tokens will be available during the tokensale. Tokens are priced at US$0.01 per token, with a minimum purchase of 0.1 ETH required.

Including the already finished presale, the crowdsale has been broken up into 4 stages.

Real Estate Doc

The real estate market is rife with paperwork that’s begging to be automated. The Real Estate Doc (RED) vision is to set the standard for commercial real estate leasing technology, allowing users to manage their businesses through customized, self-executing smart contracts.

Taken directly from their whitepaper, there are 5 distinct modules that make up the RED platform:

1. Digital Document Management
2. Asset Planning and Budgeting
3. Streamlined Client/Vendor KYC Process
4. Payments and Loyalty Points Management
5. The Space Exchange

The Digital Document Management module allows users to easily build and manage contracts for monthly lease payments, maintenance requirements, security deposits, and more. Clients will be able to grant access and collaboratively build contracts, track edits made to documents, sign electronically, and even work offline.

The Asset Planner presents analytics on contract values, payment schedules, revenues, and more on a user-friendly, customizable dashboard. Users will be able to set monthly, quarterly, and annual budgets for each asset category, and track them to monitor performance.

The Streamlined KYC framework allows corporate landlords to ensure vendor applicants are in good standing with the law. Checks are typically made with third-party applications by Experian and Equifax, and the KYC is automatically recorded on a private sidechain, and can be used for future lease agreements.

The Loyalty Points Management module allows users to transfer loyalty points between separate establishments within the same RED network. They also offer a payment gateway, meant to streamline the payment management process and reduce transaction costs.

The Space Exchange allows real estate companies to rent out a variety of spaces, from entire shops to shelf space in storage units. Customers will be able to bid through the RED payment gateway listed above, which has tokens pegged to the US dollar.

Real Estate Doc ICO
The Real Estate Doc public token sale runs from October 4, 2018 to October 31, 2018, or until their hard cap of US$9 million is raised. Out of the total 1 billion REDT token supply, 500 million will be available during the entire token generation event. There’s a minimum contribution of 0.1 ETH, and 1 REDT will cost US$0.018.

Code of Talent 

The rise of the internet and technology are begging to revolutionize one of the most important aspects of our society: the education system. Originally, schools and universities acted like gatekeepers of knowledge.

Today, you can find Ivy League college courses online for free. However, e-learning hasn’t reached the same level of effectiveness as our traditional educational institutions.

Code of Talent is looking to close the gap between students and teachers operating online, covering a wide array of educational programs. They describe their purpose as such:

To create equal opportunities for everyone on the planet, by igniting their motivation to learn and develop their skills and talents. Otherwise, they don’t stand a chance in the world of tomorrow.

The Code of Talent team has broken down the problem into 4 main sections: there’s no access to good teachers, classroom learning is boring, there’s a disconnect between theory and skills, and people are not motivated to learn. In order to solve these 4 problems, Code of Talent is implementing a 5-pronged approach:

They’ll create a gamified micro-learning engine, making it fun to learn about subjects in short bursts, rather than powering through a 2-hour lecture.
There are merit-based incentives for students and teachers.
Students and teachers will be able to interact directly.
Being that the system is built on blockchain technology, there will be an immutable record for future employers.
Employers, advertisers, and sponsors will be able to integrate directly into the platform.

Code of Talent ICO
The Code of Talent ICO event begins October 15, 2018, with 55% of the total 336,363,636 CODE tokens available during their public sale. Each CODE token will be worth US$0.10, and will be available for purchase with ETH. The budget allocation following the tokensale will be as follows:

MenaPay

As Middle East and North African (MENA) countries begin integrating crypto into their populations, one of their unique barriers is a religious one. The conservative Islamic traditions in the area means that new financial technologies will be carefully vetted before integration is considered.

MenaPay is the first fully backed, 100% Islam-compliant crypto solution looking to enter the MENA region. One of the tenets of Islamic banking, called Mudarabah, equates to systems of profit sharing. In order to abide by local financial laws, the MenaPay token cycle will distribute 75% of revenue amongst token holders through various fees.

Since stable coins play a vital role in the mass adoption of crypto, MenaPay will also introduce a token called MenaCash, which is backed by USD at a 1:1 ratio. With the volatility of the crypto market taken care of, MenaPay is able to focus on integrating their crypto solution into the MENA region in a couple of ways.

The desktop and mobile applications will be present in Arabic, providing an enormous 24% of the global population an everyday crypto solution in their common language. According to the MenaPay website, the MENA region alone supports 420 million people, and an estimated 86% of the population is unbanked.

To facilitate the simple onboarding of third-party enterprises, MenaPay will offer Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Software Development Kits (SDKs) to interested businesses. They’ll also offer merchants a user-friendly management and reporting dashboard to keep track of expenses and revenue.

MenaPay has released their roadmap, which shows their goal to be listed on a top 10 exchange by the end of 2018. They also plan to reach 5 million active users and a $1 billion market cap before Q3 2019. It’s a tall order, however, MenaPay has hired an impressive team covering every aspect of their business, and they plan to partner with creative influencers in the region. They’re also building an offline reseller network that will operate within local communities.

The MENA region has shown itself to be a very lucrative market, holding strong potential for the first cryptocurrency platform that can navigate through Sharia law.

MenaPay ICO
The MenaPay token sale is currently set for November 2018. Of the total 400 million MPAY tokens being issued, 256 million will be available for sale. Their target hardcap is sitting at $25 million, and each MPAY token is worth an estimated $0.165 at ICO price. All unsold tokens will be burned.

Akropolis

Decades ago, it was common to find men striving for a career they’d commit to working their entire lives. The fortunate ones were able to lock down jobs that earned them a pension after retiring.

As time has gone on, and technology has increased transparency across the board, there are problems within the pension industry that require a solution.

Akropolis is setting out to disrupt pensions by means of decentralization.

In their introductory blog post made in March 2018, Akropolis explained that a collapse of the pension system is mathematically inevitable. They opened the post by citing the World Economic Forum prediction that the worldwide pension gap will grow from $70 trillion to $400 trillion in 2050, which is roughly 5 times greater than the current global GDP.

WEF – We’ll Live to 100 – How Can We Afford It?
Later in the article, they went on to succinctly describe one of the main issues as such:

As observed by a many a sector analyst, most of the world’s state pensions systems function like glorified Ponzi schemes, diverting the savings of younger investors to support the obligations to the older demographic.

With average life expectancy on the rise (therefore increasing the necessity for pension savings) a transparent and decentralized solution could be the answer we need. The Akropolis platform is based on a smart contract infrastructure that will manage pension funds. This allows all users to observe what’s been happening with their funds as the years roll by.

By outsourcing pension management to blockchain-based software, overhead is directly cut, leading to less fees—and better retirements.

Akropolis ICO
The official start date for the Akropolis ICO is yet to be announced, and you can join their official waitlist by signing up on their website. For more information on the Akroplis solution, you can read their whitepaper, join their Telegram, and follow them on Twitter.

Source:  https://www.investinblockchain.com/