LongHash Ventures launches second fund for $100M to support web3 infrastructure

LongHash Ventures, a web3-focused investment firm and accelerator, has launched its second fund for $100 million, its CEO, Emma Cui, told TechCrunch.

The VC firm is still raising capital and planning to hit $100 million for its Fund II by the end of the year, Cui said. This fund will be much larger than its first fund of $15 million, which launched in February 2021.

The Singapore-based firm decided to launch this fund because there’s been a “massive influx of talent” from Web 2.0 to web3, Cui said. “We do see a lot of deal flows not just in Asia but in the Western Hemisphere, too.”

“The previous fund was focused on pre-seed to seed rounds and we want to expand to investing into other stages aside from that,” Cui said.

The $100 million will be invested in pre-seed to Series A web3 infrastructure projects that support sectors like decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, GameFi and the metaverse. To date, it has backed over 60 crypto projects, including Polkadot, Astar, Acala and Balancer, to name a few.

On the other side of the business, LongHashX, its accelerator program, has partnered with more than 50 web3 projects globally that have raised more than $150 million in the past four years, the firm said.

Even though there has been market volatility in the past few months, Cui believes the space is evolving. “We’re a VC fund with a five- to seven-year horizon. Our next fund will probably have an even longer horizon. We’re not holding a liquid portfolio so we’re not so sensitive to short-term drawdown.”

And the best time to invest?

During the next three to five years, Cui said. “Even though the market has gone through a bloodbath, every cycle brings more adoption. … The bear market is a good time to look for gems and support them in the long run.”