Castle Island Ventures announces new $250 million fund for web3 investments

Cryptocurrency and blockchain venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures announced on Wednesday that it has raised $250 million for a new fund.

The Boston-based company, which has invested in BlockFi, Bitwise, and River Financial, said in a Average position that the new fund “will support [its] mission to partner with visionary entrepreneurs to build transformative businesses powered by public blockchains.”

The fund, dubbed Castle Island Ventures III, will focus on three main areas: Internet architecture (like web3), financial services and monetary networks. Investors include endowments, asset managers and family offices.

Nic Carter, a prolific crypto commentator and writer, runs Castle Island with fellow Fidelity Investments alumni Matt Walsh. They launched the company in 2018.

“What’s exciting about this space now is that the addressable markets just keep getting bigger,” Walsh told The Block, pointing to money markets and internet data monopolies as areas that have already seen a boom. tremendous growth in recent years.

Walsh said the fund will look to invest in more Series A rounds as a wave of projects come to market.

The fund has already signed the term sheets for its first deal, which will be announced in the coming months.

The company also said it has promoted principal Ria Bhutoria to general partner and is set to grow its team significantly over the next year. Bhutoria moved to the fund from Fidelity, where she was director of research, in April last year.

The launch comes just a year after the company announced the launch of its $50 million venture capital fund in February 2021.