Quantitative Digital Asset Investment Firm Cambrian Asset Management Closes Seed Round

MILL VALLEY, Calif., July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambrian Asset Management, Inc. ("Cambrian" or "the Firm") a quantitative investment firm specializing in digital assets, announced today the closing of a $4.2 million seed equity round from notable technology and quantitative investors. The seed equity round was increased from an original target of $3 million and was significantly oversubscribed.

Lead equity investors include Howard Morgan, co-founder of Renaissance Technologies and First Round Capital; Tano Capital, the family office of the founding family of Franklin Templeton Investments; Dennis Phelps, General Partner, IVP; and Kevin Ryan, co-founder, MongoDB & Business Insider.

Other equity investors in the round include current or former senior principals from Airbnb, BNP Paribas, The Carlyle Group, DRW & RGM Advisors, Fastly, First Round Capital, Founders Circle Capital, Goldman Sachs, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, Pinterest, SAC Capital, Standard Pacific Capital, Tata Capital, UBS, Winton Capital, as well as angel investors in Coinbase and Uber. 

Funds from the equity raise will be used for technology infrastructure, operations, and research and development to support the growth of a cutting edge, quantitative investment firm of enduring value. With this financial backing in place, Cambrian will take a measured, methodical approach to taking on external capital into its Funds in order to seek exceptional returns for its investors.

Cambrian was formed in 2017. The equity fundraise follows three years of research, development, and testing of the Firm's investment strategy. Since Cambrian began running live capital in November 2018, its strategies have generated returns that are over 11x higher than a digital asset passive index, while suppressing downside volatility by greater than 75%.

"Our mission is to be the premier quantitative investment firm focused on digital assets," said Martin Green, Co-CIO and CEO of Cambrian. "We are very early in the development of the digital asset market. Notwithstanding, we are encouraged by the exceptional opportunities we see by combining a data-driven, quantitative approach with rigorous risk management. We hope to build on a first-mover advantage in order to compound capital at an exceptional rate."

Given today's macro backdrop, investors, including high-net-worth-individuals, family offices, and institutional investors, have begun to research digital assets. Mr. Morgan said, "Institutional investors looking at allocating to digital assets require fund managers who have built a robust risk management process to mitigate custodial and trading counterparty risks, as well as those who can insulate capital against significant downside price volatility. Cambrian offers these capabilities and I am pleased to be an early investor in the Firm."

Mr. Ryan said, "Following the events of 2020, more investors are starting to look at digital assets because of their scarcity, as well as the value created by innovation that is orthogonal to the equity and credit markets."

Cambrian focuses on trading liquid digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ether. Backed by the Firm's proprietary data-driven probabilistic models, rigorous risk management systems, and automated trade execution capabilities, the Firm seeks to generate exceptional risk-adjusted returns while remaining focused on limiting downside risks.

Cambrian's systems are specifically designed with the goal of asymmetrically insulating investors from losses due to the many large drawdowns inherent in the digital asset space, while providing material exposure to significant upside price movements. This approach seeks to deliver exceptional returns that have low correlation to equities and other major asset classes.

Cambrian's team has complementary and deep experience in technology, finance, and science.

Martin Green, Co-CIO & CEO, has 25 years of technology sector experience combining operating experience and a background in long/short technology investing. Martin was President of Sequoia-backed Meebo (acquired by Google), SVP Operations of CNET Networks (acquired by CBS), and began his career in the technology advisory group at Morgan Stanley.

Jay Posner, Co-CIO & CFO, has 16 years of portfolio management experience, with 10 years at two of the world's most successful hedge funds. Jay created and managed a successful ~$1 billion systematic, model-driven, market-neutral portfolio at Millennium Management, after heading the first real estate equities strategy at Zimmer Lucas Partners.

P. Daniel Tyreus, PhD, Head of Engineering, has 23 years of experience at multiple venture-backed startups and has a wide technical background, including data engineering at scale, natural language processing, and n-tier systems architecture. Daniel did graduate work in computational modeling of biophysical systems at UC Berkeley and started a biotech company at age 20.

About Cambrian Asset Management, Inc.

Cambrian Asset Management, Inc. is a digital asset investment firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Firm employs a quantitative, data drive approach seeks to generate superior risk adjusted returns uncorrelated to other asset classes.  For more information, visit:  https://www.cambrianasset.com/

SOURCE Cambrian Asset Management, Inc.