Polychain Capital
Courtesy of Polychain Capital
- CategoryVC
Founded by the first employee of Coinbase, Olaf Carlson-Wee, Polychain Capital has become one of the top crypto-native venture funds, earning it the lead spot in the VC category of Fortune’s Crypto 40.
After he quit Coinbase to launch Polychain in 2016, Carlson-Wee’s new fund quickly attracted top investors as partners, including Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Abstract Ventures’ Ramtin Naimi. Those bets paid off, at least initially, as Polychain earned them a 2,303% return in its first full year of operation, after fees, before its performance precipitously dropped in 2018.
Despite subsequent downturns, Carlson-Wee and Polychain have continued with a crypto-first ethos, leading rounds in top projects from Solana to Ava Labs and backing ambitious firms like the climate-focused blockchain Celo. As of early 2022, Polychain had over $6 billion in assets under management.
In October 2022, just a month before the collapse of FTX would plunge the sector into an even deeper bear market, Polychain led a $165 million Series B for the crypto exchange Uniswap, valuing the company at $1.66 billion.
After he quit Coinbase to launch Polychain in 2016, Carlson-Wee’s new fund quickly attracted top investors as partners, including Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Abstract Ventures’ Ramtin Naimi. Those bets paid off, at least initially, as Polychain earned them a 2,303% return in its first full year of operation, after fees, before its performance precipitously dropped in 2018.
Despite subsequent downturns, Carlson-Wee and Polychain have continued with a crypto-first ethos, leading rounds in top projects from Solana to Ava Labs and backing ambitious firms like the climate-focused blockchain Celo. As of early 2022, Polychain had over $6 billion in assets under management.
In October 2022, just a month before the collapse of FTX would plunge the sector into an even deeper bear market, Polychain led a $165 million Series B for the crypto exchange Uniswap, valuing the company at $1.66 billion.