Fabric Announces $130m Fund
Building on Open Web thesis of Fund 2017, Fabric announces $130 million Venture Fund to back the founders of the Open Economy
Fabric Ventures’ existing 2017 fund of ‘open economy’ projects already spans software infrastructure, finance and media projects with a combined project valuation of $42Bn. We are immensely proud to work with such phenomenal projects, founders and teams. Our new fund, Europe’s biggest of its type, will double down on the same thesis backing founders across the globe. Fund 2021 is backed by the European Investment Fund, Atomico, Galaxy Digital, DCG, and the founders of Ethereum, Wise, and MySQL. Also investing are 42 partners, executives, contributors and founders from the open web community to help accelerate the success of the portfolio.
Nicolas Julia, co-founder and CEO at Sorare comments: “Fabric was one of our early supporters from our Seed round, and not only did they provide capital & critical introductions, but they also became actively involved with our platform & community. They are on a very short list of funds that merge operational backgrounds, with a deep crypto expertise and a willingness to actively contribute to their portfolio. I am thrilled to have worked with Fabric so far.”
We will back traditional equity as well as the software tokens and other digital assets native to these new, inclusive, collaborative networks and applications. The investing partners are Richard Muirhead, Managing Partner; Anil Hansjee, General Partner and Max Mersch, Partner (pictured within the article). The Fabric team comprises experienced founders and operators tirelessly serving the next generation. Together, we continue to participate actively in these new decentralised networks and to invest in the fundamental research upon which they are built.
We are delighted that our 2021 fund is the very first EIF-backed fund specifically mandated to invest in digital assets. We have been in conversations with the EIF since December 2019 and are excited to be the first manager they chose to introduce them to the world of digital assets and decentralisation. Our new fund will refine the thesis of our 2017 vintage whose portfolio of projects encompass open web, open finance and open media; include Polkadot, TheGraph, Sorare, 1Inch, SkyMavis and Near; and have a combined value north of $42bn today. The 2017 Fund has attained approximately a 20x multiple on the invested capital.
EIF Chief Executive, Alain Godard said: “We are very pleased to be partnering with Fabric Ventures to bring to the European market this fund specialising in blockchain technologies. Despite their rich engineering talent, deeptech entrepreneurs in the blockchain sector in Europe often struggle to find financial support and investors that have a deep understanding of their space. This partnership seeks to address that need and unlock financing opportunities for entrepreneurs active in the field of blockchain technologies — a field of particular strategic importance for the EU and our competitiveness on the global stage.”
Our Limited Partners
None of what we do would be possible without our limited Partners. An open, broad and active community is central to attracting the finest founders and propelling them on their path.
Our new fund is backed by notable institutions including Niklas Zennstrom’s venture firm Atomico, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, Barry Silbert’s DCG, German multi-family office Lennertz & Co., Blockchain Coinvestors and Hutt Capital.
Since our genesis as Firestartr in 2012, we have always strived to be an active collective of founders, operators and funders. Also investing are 42 partners, executives, contributors and founders drawn from Ethereum, (Transfer)Wise, PayU, Polkadot, Sorare, Ledger, Ebury, Aztec Protocol, Raisin, Aragon, Orchid, MySQL, MariaDB, NEAR Protocol, Curve, Blackpool, StakeDAO, Stake Capital, PayPal, Google, The New Institute, Verifone, Earlybird, Accelerator Ventures, Felix Capital, LocalGlobe, Matrix Partners China, Brunswick, OpenOcean, DN Capital and Claret Capital. Many of these founders we have backed in previous investments.
The Vision: An Open Economy
Today’s omnipresent digital platforms are closed economies that are optimised to trap data and power centrally in the pursuit of profitability. Over time, these platforms cease to innovate for their users or to protect their well-being and privacy. By contrast, the new technologies of the open web, such as digital assets and blockchain, support the free flow of users, identity, data, and value, incentivising collaboration and facilitating an open economy with more benign outcomes, greater overall economic returns for all participants, and ultimately a fairer, more stable and sustainable society. Fabric Ventures sees this as an upgrade to capitalism itself.
In just ten years, the network capitalization of Bitcoin and Ethereum has attained one trillion dollars, fueled by corporate adoption from the likes of Tesla, Goldman Sachs, and PayPal. In just two years, a $100 billion decentralised finance sector has emerged. In just two months, the $1.5 billion market in user-owned media and crypto collectibles has shaken up the media and art worlds — including Fabric Ventures’ portfolio company Axie Infinity’s incredible rise.
Axie Infinity, an NFT based breeding and battling game, has become the dApp or blockchain with the most cumulative revenue over the last 7 days. Their pioneering ‘Play-to-Earn’ model means that if ranked against national averages, Axie Infinity would have the 25th highest monthly salary of all countries in the world. Individuals in the Philippines are now in a position to quit their day job and earn up to four times the local minimum wage by just playing the game for a few hours each day. Yet, the potential for such incentivised collaboration around complex problems is way broader than gaming, even if it is in this new crypto metaverse.
Humankind’s greatest challenges and exciting opportunities require broad stakeholder collaboration. The new software of the open web makes it easier than ever to kickstart these new digital ecosystems and ensure that concentration of market power never leads to their corruption and demise. Opportunities stretch from accounting for environmental impact and driving financial inclusion of individuals and businesses to harnessing the untapped power of health data. As these new equitable and inclusive digital networks become pervasive and interconnected, Fabric Ventures believes we shall see the global rise of a fairer and more open economy and a fairer society.
Work With Us
We are excited to build our 2021 portfolio and bring more entrepreneurs into this Fabric Family. Our new fund will be put to work partnering with the most daring and relentless entrepreneurs of the open economy on their journey to architect lasting protocols and platforms, not simply companies. It is now well acknowledged that there is a need for a web that is user-owned and, consequently, more human-centric. Whether you have a project you are nurturing; a desire to join one of our portfolio teams or the Fabric team itself then please be in touch.
In backing Fabric’s latest fund, Gav Wood, founder of Polkadot and former CTO of Ethereum comments: “Fabric supported an early Ethereum meetup I led in January 2014 and followed my team as we spun out Parity in 2016. So we were very happy to have them as a backer in 2017 when we launched Polkadot. They have supported the Web3 Foundation ecosystem throughout and ongoing.”
There are astonishing people crafting this digital fabric for the benefit of all and we are excited to support those people with our latest fund.
‘Ownership is King’
Fabric Ventures
The Partnership is supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instruments and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (“EFSI”) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing.
