The promise of decentralized, blockchain-based web3 continues to entice investors, and TCV is no exception. The Menlo Park venture firm announced a new $460 million fund today that will be more focused on earlier-stage deals, expanding beyond the later-stage, growth investments that it is known for.
Dubbed the Velocity Fund, it will "complement our parallel investment activity with ambitious tech companies at later stages of development," TCV said in a statement announcing the fund, and will be headed by general partners Matt Brennan and Gautam Gupta.
The new fund will focus on Series A, B, C "and beyond," according to the announcement, with a particular focus on companies in industries such as e-commerce, health and wellness, finances, artificial intelligence, machine learning and supply chains.
The firm could also use the Velocity fund as a way to jump into crypto and web3, TechCrunch first reported .
"We are excited about crypto and web3, how it is impacting the technology ecosystem more broadly and potential of blockchain technologies. It’s one of the themes we are looking into," Gupta told me via email. "We’ve been following blockchain for several years. We think it is still the early days in this space and we expect to continue to closely monitor the space and its impact on the broad technology ecosystem as well as companies that are directly participating in or servicing the web3 trend."
TCV has already invested in two startups from this new fund: BenchSci, a Toronto-based AI-powered drug discovery platform, and Passport, a San Francisco-based international shipping logistics service that raised a $25 million Series B last week.
The firm has raised 11 growth funds since 1995, and another even bigger fund is reportedly in the works, too. TCV is currently fundraising $5.5 billion for what would be its 12th growth fund, according to the WSJ. It also raised a $4 billion growth fund one year ago. And its portfolio includes Airbnb, Brex, Dollar Shave Club, Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix and Peloton.
