Lightspeed Faction Launches $285 Million Venture Fund for Blockchain Startups

Fund will focus primarily on early-stage projects primed to advance the crypto industry

MENLO PARK, Calif., Nov. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lightspeed Faction, a leading blockchain-focused venture capital firm, today announced the launch of its inaugural $285 million venture fund. Faction will primarily invest in early stage blockchain projects and serve as a long-term capital partner as these projects scale. In addition to providing capital, the fund will serve as a seasoned resource to blockchain entrepreneurs on a range of topics from tokenomics to business scaling.

Faction offers founders access to a team of experienced blockchain investors and operators, servicing the industry at a time when many have fled. The team is primed to provide crypto-native advice, with team members hailing from Amber Group, Blockchain.com, and Coinbase, amongst others. 

Lightspeed Faction is a joint venture with Lightspeed Venture Partners, and as a result, combines Faction's crypto-only approach with Lightspeed's deep Silicon Valley roots and platform business scaling resources. Faction collaborates with Lightspeed on blockchain-related matters, but operates the fund independently. Faction is a separate partnership, with its own dedicated LP base and has full investment discretion over the $285M of capital raised.

Banafsheh Fathieh, Co-Founder and General Partner of Lightspeed Faction, commented: "We are steadfast in our conviction that crypto is a generation-defining technology, and we are fully committed to investing behind the best entrepreneurs looking to propel blockchain technology forward. The blockchain ecosystem is full of promising projects looking to disrupt everything from financial systems to telecommunication and we look forward to collaborating with them to nurture the next phase of blockchain innovation."

Faction engages with projects during their earliest stages, typically in Seed and Series A rounds, and invests in businesses that seek to provide positive societal impact using blockchain technology. Faction invests in the top teams and projects across all sectors of the blockchain industry, with a focus on using the technology to provide real utility to users and businesses. Faction has continued to invest throughout the bear market and already boasts an established track record of investments across the blockchain ecosystem, including investments in Crossmint, Lens, Narya.ai, Skip.money, Matter Labs, and more.

Faction's founding partners, Samuel Harrison and Banafsheh Fathieh, have deployed over $500M of capital across early-stage and blockchain venture capital throughout their careers. They have consistently invested through multiple crypto cycles with unwavering conviction, generating a long track record of backing the leading players in the space, including Aave, Arbitrum, Blockdaemon, Figure, Immutable, NEAR, Republic, Wintermute, and Matter Labs amongst others.

Samuel Harrison, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lightspeed Faction, added: "We aim to be a collaborative partner from the start of the founder journey to exit. Building in blockchain is hard, but we went into the space because we see it as a great enabling technology, which can be used to achieve positive societal outcomes, such as enabling cheaper, more efficient financial services with the added benefit of greater transparency and unfettered access. We're particularly excited by net new behaviors and outcomes enabled by the unique properties of blockchain technology. We've been doing this for a long time and intend to be a dependable financing partner in the cycles yet to come."

About Lightspeed Faction
Lightspeed Faction is the leading blockchain-native venture capital firm that merges Silicon Valley VC experience with deep blockchain expertise. Faction typically invests in early-stage startups across the blockchain ecosystem that are in their Seed or Series A funding rounds. Faction is firmly committed to the growth of the crypto space, investing in projects with the potential to meaningfully contribute to and advance the industry and society at large.

For more information, please visit: https://www.faction.vc

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Carta, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Faire, Forty Seven, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, Udaan, Ultima Genomics and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. www.lsvp.com

About Lightspeed Faction's Relationship with Lightspeed
Faction Ventures, LLC ("Faction") and Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. ("Lightspeed") are separate businesses that operate independently of each other. Faction is a registered investment adviser under the United States Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. Faction advises its own fund(s) and does not advise any Lightspeed clients, and Lightspeed does not advise Faction or any of its clients. 

Contact: press@faction.vc

SOURCE Lightspeed Faction