Jump Capital, a Chicago-based venture capital firm, has closed a $350 million fund that will have an greater focus on crypto.
- The firm’s seventh venture fund is 75% larger than the preceding $200 million fund of October 2019.
- One of the beneficiaries of Jump Capital’s earlier investments in crypto was Mexico-based exchange Bitso, which worked with El Salvador’s government in developing the Chivo wallet for the country’s citizens following El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. Jump Capital joined a $62 million funding round into Bitso led by technology company Ripple in 2019.
- As with previous funds, Jump Capital is eyeing early-stage investments in sectors such as fintech, IT infrastructure and B2B software as a service. However, the fund will have “an increased concentration on the evolving crypto ecosystem,” it announced Tuesday.
- The fund will focus on base infrastructure layers, decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming and Web 3.0.
- Jump Capital’s sister firm, Jump Trading, today said it launched a new division, Jump Crypto, dedicated to building software infrastructure for blockchain systems as well as to crypto trading and market-making activities.
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