Kraken Ventures Raises $65M for Fund Focused on Crypto, Fintech

The firm has made investments in Blockdaemon, Anchorage, Messari, Hashflow, Acala and pStake

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

key takeaways

  • The fund will focus on investing in financial infrastructure, Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi)
  • About half of firm’s investments are in the US, but it’s looking to explore opportunities in Canada, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the UK, Israel and United Arab Emirates

Kraken Ventures is launching its first fund, after raising $65 million to invest across crypto and fintech, the firm announced on Friday. 

“Our original goal for the fund was $50M, but given the significant demand we had for the fund, we expanded the fund size up to $65M,” Brandon Gath, managing partner at Kraken Ventures, told Blockworks. 

Kraken Ventures is its own entity, but it is anchored and led by Kraken, the world’s largest digital asset exchange by euro volume and liquidity. 

Though the majority of the business’s existing investments focus on seed rounds and Series A investments, the Kraken Ventures Fund I LP will focus on investing in technologies supporting the future of crypto and fintech innovation. This includes tech within the financial infrastructure, Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors.

The crypto exchange launched its venture capital fund in February 2021 and has made a number of investments since in Blockdaemon, Anchorage, Messari, Hashflow, Acala and pStake, according to the company.

The amount or timeline for the investments were not disclosed, but the fund intends to make initial investments ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. 

“We will continue to invest in infrastructure that will power both the crypto and fintech ecosystems,” Gath said. “Our goal is to get to know teams even before they’re launching their company or protocol to be able to support them from a very early point in their development through an investment and operational support,” he added.

Kraken Ventures currently has about half of its investments in the US and the other half allocated internationally. But the firm is looking to explore opportunities in Canada, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom, Israel and United Arab Emirates, according to its website

In addition to launching the fund, the firm announced that Laurens De Poorter will be Kraken Venture’s head of Europe as a part of its global expansion. De Poorter will focus on executing investments and working with portfolios across the region. 

“The European crypto scene is booming; deal count doubled in the last two years and continues to accelerate,” De Poorter said in a statement. “With the influx of institutional money and impending regulation wave, one of the most promising areas will be the intersection of crypto and fintech.”

Gath said going forward there is potential to make the crypto ecosystem more accessible to the masses, not just those who understand the technology, by making it more secure, scalable, transparent and easy to use.

“We think this will just continue to widen the gap between innovation on the crypto side versus more traditional financial services,” Gath said. “The innovation and exciting products that cut out middle agents and give economics back to the user are what’s driving excitement in the space and why a young demographic has so embraced this industry. Now it’s time for the industry to make sure everyone has the tools to participate,” he said.


Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.


Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Strive board member Ben Werkman expects thousands of firms to hold BTC, if only “to protect themselves”

article-image

To date, 12.6 million humans have scanned at a World Orb

article-image

One small step for man, one giant leap for Bitcoin

article-image

Jay Woods, Chief Global Strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said it would be “very rare” for an acquisition to happen since the IPO may occur as soon as next week

article-image

Sponsored

Money is one of the most consequential pieces of infrastructure, and M0 believes its architecture should serve builders, not extract from them

article-image

The financial backwaters they laughed at might be the only thing keeping the dollar afloat