Kraken is supporting the launch of a new independent initiative to actively invest in early stage cryptocurrency and fintech startups.
Kraken Ventures, a global investment operation with a presence in Austin, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, New York, and San Francisco will provide the necessary resources and expertise to developers and respective technologies that will power the next wave of innovation in our industry. Kraken Ventures offers the best of both worlds in being a completely autonomous fund that’s backed by the resources and expertise of Kraken.
The breadth of projects Kraken Ventures will assist in is quite extensive; fintech, crypto companies & protocols, decentralized finance (DeFi) as well as enabling technologies such as AI, Machine & Deep learning, RegTech, and cybersecurity. Those portfolio companies will receive investments that range between $250K – $3M, access to a robust team with decades of experience in the cryptocurrency & fintech industries as well as access to the resources and environment essential to success.
The Kraken Ventures team will be led by Brandon Gath, Kirill Gourov, and Akshi Federici – three veterans of the fintech and cryptocurrency industries and, most recently, senior leaders at Kraken.
Brandon has 20 years of experience in the financial services and crypto industries. For the last three years, he served as Head of Corporate Development at Kraken. Prior to that, he led investments in Orbital Insight, Crosslend, Digital Currency Group, Nervana Systems, Crypto Facilities, Privitar, and Fortscale while with CME Ventures. Brandon will utilize his expansive knowledge and the expertise of his team to continually help companies work toward achieving their goals.
“We will take a hands-on approach with our portfolio companies to provide guidance, new commercial opportunities and additional capital support,” Brandon said. “The possibility to leverage Kraken’s experience building a truly global, scalable platform enables us to support our portfolio companies from inception to market leadership.”
Kirill most recently worked to support strategic investment for Kraken after previously managing blockchain investments for multi-family offices based in New York as well as leading blockchain strategy efforts at Expand Research, a subsidiary of The Boston Consulting Group.
Akshi Federici is a seasoned strategic operator with over 15 years of experience in the financial services and cryptocurrencies industries with The Boston Consulting Group, BlackRock, Conde Nast, ConsenSys, and Kraken.
To find out more about Kraken Ventures or submit an application, please visit KrakenVentures.com.
Source: https://blog.kraken.com/post/7825/kraken-backs-launch-of-venture-capital-fund/
