Fortune Magazine: Once considered "outliers," crypto venture capitalists are gradually integrating into the technology ecosystem.

Author: Jeff John Roberts

Compiled by: Shenchao TechFlow

Hello everyone, happy Friday! I am financial editor Jeff Roberts, and today I am temporarily taking over for Ellie to bring you an article. Since moving to Southern California two years ago, I have been amazed by the thriving venture capital scene here—compared to Silicon Valley and New York, the venture capital landscape here seems to receive less media attention. Recently, I interviewed a senior figure in this field—Adam Winnick.

Winnick is a vibrant person who possesses one of the most important qualities of a venture capitalist: the ability to bring together influential people. The last time I encountered him was at a dinner hosted by Medici Network, an institutional investor conference focused on the cryptocurrency field, which gathered a diverse group of individuals from startup founders to bankers, as well as representatives from Ivy League endowment funds and sovereign wealth funds.

The dinner was held at the Avra restaurant in Beverly Hills. As someone who has attended many similar events, I noticed that besides the excellent Mediterranean cuisine, the atmosphere of this event was very "normal". Once upon a time, those involved in crypto events considered themselves outsiders, and the venture capital industry viewed crypto venture capital as a completely different species, playing by a set of unique rules.

But I'm not sure if this view still holds.

Nowadays, crypto investment resembles a branch of the venture capital field, although there are still some obvious differences—especially in terms of the profit model. Traditional venture capital typically acquires a batch of shares from startups and then waits around seven years to see returns; whereas the world of crypto venture capital is much more liquid, revolving around tokens rather than shares.

In the early days, the combination of cryptocurrency and venture capital led to some extreme behaviors—such as venture capital firms hoarding tokens linked to "semi-finished" projects and then selling them off to retail investors. However, the recently implemented stricter lock-up period policies have curbed some of the worst behaviors, and the upcoming clear regulations are expected to further improve the situation.

For the token model, Winnik is a staunch supporter. He believes: "This is a powerful incentive mechanism that can kickstart network effects. Just because someone abuses it today, or because it was not used correctly in the early days, does not mean it won't be better utilized in the future."

If, as Winnik predicts, traditional technology and the crypto world gradually converge, tokens are likely to become a more common feature in the venture capital sector. Winnik stated that in this process of convergence, the winners will be those who can combine the mature technological architecture and extensive business networks of so-called Web2 with the high-tech and low capital intensity dynamics of Web3.

Winnick was once a banker, and he, along with co-founder Kamal Mokeddem, a former Oracle developer, seems to have found a way to crack the code of crypto investment. Their company Finality Capital Partners' first $45 million fund had an internal rate of return (IRR) of 69% at the end of last year, and they made Series A investments in promising crypto staking projects such as EigenLayer and Babylon.

Meanwhile, despite being in the early stages, the fund's second investment tool, Liquid Fund, has already risen by 12% this year, while many other funds' returns have remained flat or negative in the first few months of 2025.

Although Finality Capital cannot compete with crypto venture capital giants like a16z and Haun Ventures, the progress made by its partners indicates that they have found their own niche—Winnick attributes this achievement to his willingness to provide candid advice and maintain direct contact with the companies in the firm's portfolio.

Venture Capital Trends

Senra Systems: This aerospace and defense industry harness developer based in Redondo Beach, California has completed a $25 million Series A funding round. This round was led by Dylan Field and CIV, with follow-on investment from General Catalyst, Sequoia, Founders Fund, and others.

Mercanis: The Berlin-based procurement solutions provider powered by agent AI has completed a $20.4 million Series A funding round. Partech and AVP led the investment, with existing investors Signals.VC, Capmont Technology, Speedinvest, and angel investors participating in the follow-on.

Tadaweb: The Luxembourg-based provider of open information and open-source intelligence operating systems has completed a $20 million financing round. Arsenal Growth and Forgepoint Capital led the investment, with existing investor Forgepoint Capital International participating.

Swarmia: The software engineering intelligence platform developer based in Helsinki has completed a financing round of 10 million euros (approximately 11.5 million dollars). DIG Ventures and Karma Ventures led the investment, with Romain Huët and Cal Henderson participating.

Polar: This Stockholm-based SaaS enterprise payment infrastructure provider has completed a $10 million seed round financing. Accel led the investment, with participation from angel investors.

Brandback: This Berlin-based resale infrastructure provider has completed a $7.4 million funding round. Among them, Earlybird led a $5.7 million seed round, with 9900 Capital and other investors participating; 9900 Capital also led a $1.7 million pre-seed round, with angel investors participating.

Embedl: This AI reasoning optimization technology company based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has completed a pre-Series A funding round of 5.5 million euros (approximately 6.3 million dollars), with investors including Chalmers Ventures, Fairpoint Capital, SEB Greentech, and others.

Project Eleven: This New York-based quantum technology company has completed a $6 million seed round of financing, led by Variant and Quantonation, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Nebular, and Formation.

Swebal: The TNT company based in Stockholm has completed a financing round of 3 million euros (approximately 3.4 million dollars), with investors including Karl Engelbrektson, Thomas von Koch, and Pär Svärdson.

SportsVisio: The AI-driven sports analytics company based in Boston has completed a $3.2 million financing round, with investors including Mighty Capital, Sony Innovation Fund, Alumni Ventures, Waterstone Impact Fund, as well as existing investors Sapphire Sport, Hyperplane, Sovereign's Capital, and angel investors.

Private Equity Dynamics

Bitdefender: The cybersecurity company backed by Vitruvian Partners has acquired Dublin-based email security solutions provider Mesh Security, with specific financial terms undisclosed.

HG Insights: A company backed by Riverwood Capital has acquired TrustRadius, a provider of customer reviews and buyer intelligence solutions based in Austin, with specific financial terms undisclosed.

Other Dynamics

Ares Management has acquired a minority stake in the French SailGP team, based in Paris, which is a competitive sailing team, with specific financial terms undisclosed.

Dai Nippon Printing has acquired a majority stake in Laxton, a biometric identity solutions provider based in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, with specific financial terms undisclosed.

Nuveen: Agreed to acquire the registered investment advisor Brooklyn Investment Group based in Brooklyn and its parent company, Brooklyn Artificial Intelligence, a company that develops direct indexing technology for asset management firms, with specific financial terms undisclosed.