Blockchain Venture Firm Woodstock Raising $100M From US Investors

Time Stamp: February 15, 2022 5:14 PM
Source Node: 1176003
funding
  • The firm plans to hold a final close for the new fund at the end of March
  • The capital raise marks the first time the asset manager has courted US investors

Woodstock Fund, a blockchain-focused venture capital firm with deep roots in India, is tapping US investors for the first time as it aims to raise $100 million for its latest fund, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The firm plans to hold a final close for the vehicle, Woodstock Capital Fund II, at the end of March, one of the people said. The fund has already held a first close with limited partners, including a number of family offices.

Sources were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive business dealings. The firm declined to comment.

The fund features feeder vehicles that accept capital contributions from US and non-US investors alike. That’s a departure from the firm’s first fund, Woodstock Capital Fund I, which focused on seed-stage investment opportunities and dealt exclusively with investors outside the US.

The founders of the firm, which has outposts in India, the United Arab Emirates and the US, see a natural bridge between Web3 investment opportunities in Asia and the Middle East and a growing appetite from the US to supply risk capital for such plays.

Previous investments made by Woodstock include Web3 projects such as Covalent, Marlin and Polygen, plus NFT businesses Terra Virtua and MetaSky, as well as DeFi startups ParaSwap and UniLend.

Woodstock brought on Adam Mastrelli, a 10-year IBM veteran who helped build out the technology giant’s blockchain services, earlier this month as a partner focused on business development in the US, where he plays a key role in capital raising for the latest fund.

Unlike the first fund, which predominantly backed early-stage companies and protocols, Woodstock Capital Fund II favors a middle-market, growth-equity strategy. The plan is to back the treasuries of blockchain protocols as an investor and otherwise snap up tokens on the open market and from third parties.

On the equity front, the vehicle targets promising Series A investment opportunities. It will also — as the team did in its first fund — look to engage in staking and assist protocols with infrastructure development and governance.

The firm, one source said, has outlined to limited partners three crucial growth areas for crypto: financialization, or tokenizing of real-world assets; virtualization, a Web3-driven belief that the virtual world will increasingly mesh with reality; and convergence of technologies and cultures.

The fund plans to write tickets of $1 million to $5 million. It imposes a five-year lockup on investor capital, with two one-year extension options at the discretion of limited partners.

Woodstock, led by founding partners Pranav Sharma and Himanshu Yadav, now has nine full-time employees. The firm has mulled opening an office in Singapore as Web3 development grows in the country.

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