In a strong show of support for next-generation crypto innovation, a group of Stanford graduate students has announced the close of Blockchain Builders Fund I, a new venture capital fund targeting early-stage Web3 startups. The fund has raised $28 million, significantly oversubscribed, and will back founders building frontier technology in the blockchain and decentralized ecosystem. The fund, spearheaded by Gil Rosen, Kun Peng, and Steven Willinger, is embedded within Stanford’s thriving blockchain community and focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage investments. It aims to support exceptional founders not only from Stanford but also from other top institutions with strong research and entrepreneurial cultures. To date, Blockchain Builders has already deployed over $16 million across 40 ventures. These span a diverse array of verticals, including artificial intelligence (AI), infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), real-world assets (RWAs), decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and crypto payments. The remaining capital is on track to be deployed by the end of 2025, with several portfolio companies preparing for token generation events (TGEs) in the coming months. From Stanford classrooms to venture capital Blockchain Builders emerged from within the thriving Stanford blockchain community. Blockchain Builders has deep roots in Stanford’s academic and entrepreneurial community. The founding trio is not only investors but also educators and ecosystem builders. They launched the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, teach the MS&E 447 Blockchain Entrepreneurship course, and host the Blockchain Application Stanford Summit (BASS). These initiatives have supported over 200 founders, trained 400 students, and reached nearly 5,000 event attendees. They also have experience in the finance and crypto industry. 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. Peng said, “Blockchain Builders was born from our firsthand experience scaling the Stanford blockchain ecosystem. It gives us a unique vantage point and network to support tomorrow’s breakout founders.” Professor David Tse, a leading figure in blockchain infrastructure and founder of Babylon, echoed the sentiment. “Stanford’s ecosystem—through our research, courses, and accelerators—has become a launchpad for the next wave of blockchain innovation,” he said. Looking ahead, Blockchain Builders plans to extend its reach through partnerships with Cornell’s IC3 accelerator, which now includes Berkeley, Princeton, Yale, and UCL. The fund is also collaborating with key ecosystem players such as the Ethereum Foundation, Solana, BASE, and Starkware to continue scaling its impact across the Web3 landscape. Backing tomorrow’s blockchain future Blockchain Builders has invested in 0G, a modular AI blockchain backed by Hack VC and Delphi Digital, Nexus Labs, a decentralized supercomputing startup supported by Pantera, Lightspeed, and Dragonfly. They have also invested in Hyperbolic, an open-access AI cloud project with investors like Variant and Polychain, and Pod, a blockless Layer-1 chain supported by a16z and 1kx. The founders emphasize their hands-on approach, working closely with startups on strategy, go-to-market execution, and fundraising readiness. “We roll up our sleeves and dive deep with founders,” said Gil Rosen. “We help position them for top-tier follow-on investment.” The post Stanford grads launch $28M blockchain fund backing next-gen web3 startups appeared first on Invezz
