Bain Capital Ventures Unveils $560 Million Crypto Fund for Blockchain-Focused Tech Startups

Bain Capital Ventures, the venture arm of the 37-year-old private equity firm Bain Capital, announced on Tuesday that it has launched a $560 million fund focused exclusively on cryptocurrency-related efforts.

Stefan Cohen, a managing partner at Bain Capital, talked about the development and said: “We’ve become quite high conviction we are at the beginning of a multi-decade technology shift. We really needed a dedicated team and a dedicated fund structure. That’s really what lead to the addition of Bain Capital Crypto.”

Bain Ventures is looking to use the fund to invest into everything from crypto start-ups to decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in areas like Layer 1 blockchains -- ones that compete with Ethereum -- and storage. The firm expects to deploy the fund in the next two to three years and invest in about 30 companies. The venture wants to be a much more active investor than is typical to empower the needs of crypto start-ups.

“We are looking for firms who are able to participate in governance actively, firms that can provide liquidity into the protocols. The crypto fund may invest in company equity, promises of future tokens or the actual coins, which it might acquire from DAOs’ treasuries or on secondary markets,” Cohen further elaborated.

Cohan also revealed that Bain Ventures may consider launching more crypto-focused funds once the fund's capital is deployed. “Our view is that this is a 10-20-year opportunity, and we are building a platform here that we think can facilitate multiple funds over a period of time,” Cohen explained.

Financing for Start-Ups, Company Growth, and Innovations

Bain Capital Ventures has been investing in cryptocurrency for the last seven years, investing funds into venture capital company Digital Currency Group, crypto lender BlockFi Inc., and decentralized-finance lender Compound. But its new crypto Fund is the first fund focused on the cryptocurrency market.

Bain Ventures offers seed through growth capital for firms focused on technology and technology-enabled services, mainly for enterprise customers. The capital ventures firm invests across sectors, including infrastructure healthcare, software, FinTech, and application software.

Bain Ventures has invested funds in companies, including SurveyMonkey, LinkedIn, Rapid7, TellApart, Kiva Systems, Docusign, Infusionsoft, VMTurbo, Liazon, BloomReach etc.

Since 1984, Bain Ventures has partnered with more than 200 firms to build, commercialize, and grow their businesses. The venture firm has about $3 billion of assets under management and has offices in Boston, New York City, and the Bay Area.