Silver Lake Founder Glenn Hutchins Launches $72M Digital Asset Fund

Technology investor Glenn Hutchins has launched a digital asset-focused venture capital fund with his partners James Hutchins (who is also his son) and Travis Scher, called North Island Ventures. The fund, which has raised $72 million to date, seeks opportunities to […]

share

key takeaways

  • The firm will invest in “enabling technologies” and currently counts Dapper Labs, Nori and Axelar in its portfolio
  • Investors in the fund include Paul Tudor Jones, Apollo cofounder Josh Harris, Rapper LL Cool J, and others

Technology investor Glenn Hutchins has launched a digital asset-focused venture capital fund with his partners James Hutchins (who is also his son) and Travis Scher, called North Island Ventures.

The fund, which has raised $72 million to date, seeks opportunities to invest in “enabling technologies,” according to the thesis on its website, that entrepreneurs can use to create entirely new kinds of applications, experiences and innovations in digitally native finance, decentralized communities, user-controlled data and decentralized computer networks. 

Its portfolio currently includes non-fungible token (NFT) maker Dapper Labs, carbon removal marketplace Nori and cross-chain communication startup Axelar, Scher said in a tweet Thursday.

Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, Apollo Group cofounder Josh Harris, venture capitalist Geoff Yang, SoFi CEO Anthony Noto, former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and rapper LL Cool J are also investors in the fund.

Glenn Hutchins, cofounder of the $43 billion private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, was one of the earliest finance industry heavy-hitters to embrace bitcoin and more specifically, endorse the idea and potential of public blockchains (which at the time many tried to separate from the digital asset itself). 

He left Silver Lake in 2018 to make private equity-style investments through North Island, the New York-based family office he runs with James. Shortly after it led an equity fundraising round for Digital Assets Data, the data and analytics startup acquired last month by NYDIG.

James Hutchins previously led research at Coatue Management; Scher ran investments at Digital Currency Group.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 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.

recent research

4.png

Research

This months PPGC covered four main areas. Firstly, debriefing the progress and status of the mainnet implementation of the Ahmedabad hard fork. Secondly, a retrospective on the testnet phase of the Ahemdabad Hard Fork. Thirdly, an update on PIP-36 which involves replaying failed state syncs. Lastly, PIP-47 which pushes upgrades to the Polygon Protocol Council.

article-image

Institutions to test out the settlement of “digital assets and currencies” on a network that annually carries more than 5 billion financial messages

article-image

After Bitwise’s XRP ETF filing this week, one industry watcher notes: “Politics will determine whether this happens soon or in a few years”

article-image

Plus, a look back at some of the SEC’s biggest enforcement moves under Gurbir Grewal

article-image

The forward-looking financial system is being championed by several contributors to India’s UPI digital money system

article-image

Multiple teams are pursuing integration cross-chain and off-chain

article-image

An SEC spokesperson told Blockworks the Ripple judgment clashes with Supreme Court precedent and securities laws