A new fund out of Chapel Hill's Morgan Creek Capital targeting disruptive technologies has closed on more than $50 million.
Morgan Creek Digital invests in so-called “transformational technologies” such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. Called Morgan Creek Digital Fund IV LP, the latest fund has closed on nearly $51.4 million according to a securities filing.
“We’re really, really lucky,” Morgan Creek CEO Mark Yusko said. “We have these amazing anchor investors who have been with us since we launched Morgan Creek Digital back in 2018. They’re just really, really committed to the space.”
Yusko said the plan is to raise somewhere between $200 million and $300 million.
“We’ll close sometime in the middle of next year, so this is the first close of the fund,” he said.
Yusko said the frequency of deal flow is picking up after sky high valuations followed by muted activity. And that means the fund could soon deploy capital.
Yusko said the firm has identified the new fund’s first two investments – including one in the chips space and another in the blockchain space.
So far, five investors have participated in the latest round, which is not capped.
According to the filing, Morgan Creek teamed up with Britehorn Securities to close the sum. Britehorn will be entitled to sales commission, according to the filing.
The raise comes more than a year after Morgan Creek Digital Fund III closed on $120.6 million in July 2022.
Past investments for Morgan Creek Digital have included Coinbase, Real Blocks and BlockFi, which emerged from bankruptcy last month after being caught up in the FTX downfall.
Yusko and his company have a long history in the Triangle, starting with his tenure as head of UNC Manegement Company from 1998 to 2004.
When he ventured out of UNC with Morgan Creek, it began with just a handful of wealthy families. In two years it was eyeing overseas opportunities, pulling together $50 million to invest in hedge funds working in emerging markets such as India, China and Russia.
And Yusko began to build an international reputation as a savvy, albeit outspoken, businessman.
He doesn’t shy from taking big bets or making bold statements.Yusko recently said the Bitcoin market would see a capital influx of $300 billion if the SEC approves a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund.
Yusko told the Triangle Business Journal that with "Hurricane Sam behind us" – a reference to the recent conviction of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried – the crypto space is heating up.
“I think people are realizing that this cycle is going to be very positive in terms of more use cases," he said of Bitcoin. "The technology is more mature, so Bitcoin is once again the best performing asset of all the major assets his year, which is pretty amazing.”