The San Fransisco firm, Pantera Capital, created a reputation for itself from early investments in a diverse asset portfolio. Techcrunch reported yesterday that Pantera Capital was looking to raise over $175 million for its third venture fund. A document published by the SEC revealed that Pantera Capital has launched its third cryptocurrency with $71 million in capital already committed to the cause.
Venture Fund III, the recent investment fund, conducted its initial offering on 31st July and submitted its filing to SEC on Wednesday which unveiled that the capital was raised by ninety investors. Although Pantera’s aim when it comes to the funding remains ambiguous for now, Paul Veradittakit told TechCrunch that the huge sum was indicative of “how fast space is moving, the talent coming in, the opportunities, and the sizing of rounds. With more interesting later-stage investments [on our radar], too, we want to be flexible and able to move with the market”.
Pantera Capital raised $13 million in 2016 and $25 million in 2017 for its ICO fund, as indicated by previous filings. Pantera Capital also acknowledged in a Medium post that it lately invested the cryptocurrency trading platform, Bakkt, which launched early this month. Pantera Capital’s portfolio has also seen investments in Augur (REP), Brave (BAT), Enigma (ENG), 0x (ZRX), Abra and Circle. The San Fransico firm has also continued to run its premier Bitcoin fund that has observed a lifetime return of 10,136.15% net of fees and expenses.
The CEO of Pantera Capital, David Morehead, urged calm last week in response to the decision which SEC is yet to cast upon exchange-traded funds (ETFs). While speaking to CNBC he mentioned, “The main thing to remember is that bitcoin is very early-stage venture, but has real-time price feed — and that’s a unique thing. People get excited about the price and overreact”.
