By
Teuta Franjkovic
July 10th, 2020
Castle Island Ventures III will focus on three themes: monetary networks, internet architecture and financial services.
The venture capital firm in crypto space Castle Island announced a $250 million fund to support visionary startups and entrepreneurs in their pursuit of transforming the status quo through public blockchains. As per the post on Medium, the fund called Castle Island Ventures III will focus on three themes namely monetary networks, internet architecture and financial services. The company’s limited partner group includes investors belonging to the endowment, asset management, foundation, family office, insurance and fund of fund groups.
About the New Fund
Castle Island has a strong conviction in the role blockchain will play in changing the way the ecosystems work related to money, the internet and financial services. As mentioned earlier, it will support upcoming entrepreneurs based on three critical themes:
Monetary Networks
The venture fund firmly believes that the current system is transitioning and moving towards a rules-based monetary order with the rise in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and the increasing popularity of stable coins.
Internet Architecture
The Medium post also mentioned how the new architecture especially Web3 is enabling new protocols that will eventually disturb tech monopolies leading to new business models. Not only will these decentralized internet ecosystems prove profitable but also give back users their rights, freedom and complete ownership.
Financial Services
Castle Island is on a mission to make the financial system less political and more transparent, and it believes the change is already in progress. According to them, the traditional legacy financial firms will have the same fate as did the newspaper industry in the aftermath of web popularity.
The fund will be used for investing in more and more upcoming Series A rounds.
Castle Island Ventures and Web3
Web3 in simple terms refers to a decentralized internet wherein applications are built on the blockchain networks like Solana, Avalanche, Ethereum and Bitcoin. The Web3 technology would end the internet monopoly of big tech firms like Google and make the users in control of their data. DeFi on the other hand includes decentralized financial services. Using blockchain, these apps automate different financial transactions. These technologies are rapidly altering existing financial systems and working towards introducing new models. With venture capital firms like Castle Island, companies working on these new technologies would not only get a monetary boost but also make them contributors towards building a decentralized internet and financial ecosystem.
Founded by Matt Walsh and Nic Carter in 2018, Castle Island Ventures is a venture capital firm that specifically invests in public blockchain-based startups and established firms to enable the rapid transformation of the existing ecosystem. The firm considers the blockchain as a novel form of institution that will not only redesign market structures but also give rise to new industries. The Boston-based venture firm has already invested in firms such as BlockFi, Bitwise and River Financial.
