Blockchain Builders announces the successful closure of a $28 million crypto and Web3 fund. The fund aims to support pioneering crypto startups across AI, Infrastructure, Defi, DePIN, Payments, and RWAs sectors. Over $16 million of the fund has been deployed to 40+ blockchain projects. Blockchain Builders, a venture fund investing in pre-seed and seed-stage blockchain founders, has announced that its $28 million Fund I capital raise has successfully closed. The oversubscribed fund focuses on funding projects primarily sourced from the Stanford Web3 ecosystem, offering them pre-seed and seed-stage capital. Additionally, the fund invests in pioneering crypto communities in Stanford and exceptional founders from other top institutions. The fund is the brainchild of three Stanford graduates – Gil Rosen, Kun Peng, and Steven Willinger – who aimed to grow and scale the Stanford blockchain ecosystem. So far, Fund I has supported top blockchain projects, dispersing over $16 million in 40 blockchain ventures in several sectors, such as AI, Infrastructure, Defi, DePIN, Payments, and RWAs. The Blockchain Builders Fund I was launched in 2017 by experienced builders and operators with a passion for early ventures. The team supplements its capital investment with hands-on support, ensuring founder success. The remaining $12 million capital raise will be dispersed to pioneering crypto founders by the end of the year, according to the team. This funding will help the crypto projects successfully launch their token generation events (TGEs). Some of the notable portfolio companies expected to benefit from the funding include modular AI blockchain 0G (Hack VC, Bankless, Delphi Digital), supercomputer venture Nexus Labs (Lightspeed, Pantera, Dragonfly), open-access AI cloud Hyperbolic (Variant, Polychain, Topology), and blockless Layer-1 Pod (a16z, 1kx). Building The Stanford Blockchain Ecosystem The Blockchain Builders Fund is one of the many projects already launched by Rosen, Peng and Willinger to support the growing Stanford Blockchain Ecosystem. The team has had a hand in launching Stanford’s Blockchain Accelerator, and they have taught in the MS&E 447 Blockchain Entrepreneurship course, and helped produce the Blockchain Application Stanford Summit (BASS) conference series. Speaking of their previous successes, Blockchain Builder’s Co-founder Kun Peng, stated: “These initiatives have supported over 200 founders, 400 students, and nearly 5000 cumulative attendees, and provide a deep network to inspire, support, and mentor new founders for success.” David Tse, a professor at Stanford and co-founder of the Babylon protocol, a Bitcoin staking platform, believes the funding will help accelerate the growth of Stanford’s blockchain ecosystem. He further shared that the successes of the accelerator program are nurturing the founders from the university and helping push forward the future of Web3 across Stanford. “Stanford has an extensive history of blockchain research and innovation, including the Tse Lab that I run, the Centre for Blockchain Research, and coursework like my EE 374 course on blockchain infrastructure,” Tse said. “It’s also responsible for the BASS events and MS&E 447 entrepreneurship course, while the Stanford blockchain accelerator has helped further nurture its founder ecosystem and the number of blockchain startups launching.” Experts Pushing Forward Web3 Development Blockchain Builders boasts a team of experienced personalities and professionals across traditional finance and the emerging crypto economy. Willinger previously led Coinbase Ventures, invested at Capital One Ventures, and worked in product and partnerships at Blockstream and Google / Google X. Rosen, a prolific angel investor, bootstrapped a 100-employee venture, building distributed compute infrastructure for JPMorgan, London Stock Exchange, and the IRS; exiting to AI platform NGData. While Peng has extensive founder experience in web3 spanning crypto analytics and indexing, NFT, DeFi, and infrastructure. Gil Rosen believes their efforts will help mould new-age and high-potential founders, working with them to grow their companies into global Web3 giants. “We roll up our sleeves and dive into the details of strategy, go-to-market, and fundraising - positioning them optimally for competitive follow-on rounds led by tier-1 investors,” Rosen added. Following the completion of Fund I, Blockchain Builders is looking forward to launching Fund II. The new funding round is looking to expand its support to the new IC3-Cornell accelerator which includes Berkeley, Carnegie Melon, Princeton, Yale, and UCL, and is collaborating on thought leading events with the Ethereum Foundation, Solana, Starkware, BASE (Coinbase), and more; scaling its mission of supporting founders nationwide. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
