SAN FRANCISCO — Canonical Crypto, a newly launched venture fund focused on developer infrastructure on the blockchain, has raised $20 million in capital in an oversubscribed round for its inaugural fund. Leading the firm is founder and general partner Anand Iyer, a longtime Silicon Valley operator and investor, who most recently was a visiting partner at Pear VC, where he led their crypto investments.
Canonical Crypto will invest in and work with developers, primarily those making the transition from web2 to web3. Canonical’s main areas of focus will be in developer infrastructure – those looking to build tools and services to support the new wave of infrastructure that is necessary to create better decentralized applications. The new fund will specialize in nurturing early-stage teams and actively supporting them with crypto-native primitives.
“We are dedicated to partnering with founders who are building the tooling and infrastructure to enable the next wave of web3 and web3 assets,” said Iyer. “As tech, digital, and crypto natives, we are the new kind of investors founders are looking for today. We have the right knowledge and skills to help developers turn apps into businesses, gain access to the world’s top talent, and forge the future fabric of the internet.”
The new fund is backed by family offices and individuals from the venture capital and tech communities, including Shan Aggarwal, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Judith Elsea, Lux Capital, Mar Hershenson, Haseeb Qureshi from Dragonfly Capital, Dan Romero, Semil Shah, Amy Wu from FTX Ventures and Bilal Zuberi, among others.
“There are many funds starting up in the crypto/web3 space, but Anand’s initiative stands out,” said Mar Hershenson, Founding Managing Partner of Pear. “He has a strong track record of building and scaling companies, having worked as an operator and tech founder at companies such as Trusted and Microsoft. He also has extensive expertise in what it will take to mature the web3 developer stack. This, in addition to his commitment to supporting founders based on highly specialized expertise, make investing in Canonical Crypto a win-win.”
The geographic-agnostic firm expects to make 40 to 50 investments in its first fund, writing checks that range in size from $250,000 to $500,000, primarily focused on pre-seed and seed stage companies. Canonical Crypto will take a very active role in the journey for developers moving from web2 to web3.
