Bain Capital Ventures launches crypto-focused fund worth $560 million

Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), the venture arm of 38-year-old private equity firm Bain Capital, has launched its first crypto-focused fund worth $560 million, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

BCV has been investing in crypto startups for the last seven years, but its Crypto Fund I will exclusively back such companies. BCV first filed for this fund last September, closed it in November, and has already invested $100 million in several yet-to-be-disclosed startups.

BCV's current crypto portfolio includes companies such as BlockFi, Compound, Digital Currency Group, and Lolli. With the new fund, it's looking to back all types of crypto startups from DAOs to Layer 1 blockchains to storage.

"We've become quite high conviction we are at the beginning of a multi-decade technology shift," Stefan Cohen, a managing partner at Bain Capital Crypto, which is running the fund, told Bloomberg. "We really needed a dedicated team and a dedicated fund structure. That's really what lead to the addition of Bain Capital Crypto."

BCV isn't worried about short-term gyrations of the crypto market. It looks to invest in crypto startups with a 10-year time horizon and expects to invest in around 30 startups over the next two to three years. It also plans to actively participate in the governance of crypto projects through its investments. Thus, it is seeking both equity and token deals. It also plans to purchase tokens from DAOs' treasuries or secondary markets.

Bain is the second storied venture capital firm to unveil a crypto-focused fund in recent weeks. Last month, Sequoia Capital launched its first crypto fund worth $500-600 million. Sequoia Capital also plans to actively manage tokens of projects it will invest in, including from staking them to providing liquidity to participating in governance.