“It feels like the rise of computing did,” IVP general partner Todd Chaffee speaks about Cryptocurrency
After decades of supporting tech startups, growth stage investor IVP is looking to help supply a new gold rush with its sixteenth fund: cryptocurrency.
With $7 billion of committed capital, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. The partnership is currently investing IVP XVI, a $1.5 billion later-stage fund focused on investments in rapidly-growing technology and media companies. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 106 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 36-year IRR of 43.2%.
When IVP led a $100 million investment into Coinbase in August, it valued Coinbase at $1.6 billion. The firm distinguished the leading cryptocurrency wallet and exchange from others because of a growth curve it deemed resilient to the rise (and risk of a fall) of two if its best known currencies, bitcoin and Ethereum. In the months to come, IVP will look to make more investments in the blockchain and its protocols, says IVP general partner Todd Chaffee: “Our thesis is it’s here, it’s real, it’s growing and needs infrastructure. It feels like the rise of computing did.”
Todd Chaffee has scored with investments in travel companies including HomeAway, bought by Expedia for $3.9 billion in 2015, and Kayak, acquired by Priceline for $1.8 billion in 2012. He’s also found big hits in the online content world, with investments in Netflix, Comscore, Omniture, Pandora and Business Insider all in his portfolio. But Chaffee’s biggest success continues to be his early bet on Twitter. In 2009, he invested in the social network at a valuation of $220 million; even after public struggles, Twitter remains worth more than $10 billion on the public market in 2017, meaning IVP’s $44 million investment in Twitter turned into a return of more than $1 billion. Previously, Chaffee launched Visa’s venture capital arm in 1995 that invested in ten companies that eventually went public, most notably Yahoo.
Todd Chaffee will attend the Blockchain Connect Conference in San Francisco on Jan. 26, 2018.
Click here to learn more about cryptocurrency-related investments from Todd Chaffee and IVP.
