Hack VC to Invest \$150M in Crypto and AI Startups

Published 9 months ago

Web3 venture capital firm, Hack VC, has announced a $150 million fund to invest in early-stage crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) startups. The New York-based firm stated that its crypto-focused investments would target decentralized finance (DeFi), real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and blockchain infrastructure solutions.

Aiming to Enhance Crypto User-Friendliness

Hack VC plans to focus on projects that are capital-efficient and those that aim to decrease smart contract and protocol hacks, citing these issues as similar to the viruses that troubled early internet users in the 1990s. The firm holds a vision that Web3 requires a significant shift in scalability, security, and usability before it’s ready for mainstream use.

Seeking the Next Tech Giants in Web 3.0

The firm is optimistic about the future of startups in the Web3 space, stating, “The next Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alibaba for Web3 is already here or will launch soon.” Hack VC plans to invest heavily in the “Web3 x AI” space, with a particular interest in projects akin to those it has already funded, like Jasper AI and Ritual.

Solid Conviction in Crypto Despite Market Fluctuations

Despite the total crypto market’s reduction from $3 trillion to $828 billion from 2021 through 2023, Hack VC maintained its strong conviction for crypto. The firm previously raised a $200 million seed fund in February 2022, dedicated to supporting early-stage crypto startups.

Focused Investments Across the Spectrum

The firm’s upcoming investments will vary from hundreds of thousands of dollars for smaller projects to several million dollars for larger projects it has strong belief in. Since entering the Web3 space in 2014, Hack VC has made over 100 investments and seeded dozens of unicorns.

A Growing Interest in Web3 Companies

Venture funding for Web3-related companies totaled $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, marking a 2.5% increase from the third quarter. This was the first rise in investments into Web3 firms since the first quarter of 2022. Major investments in the fourth quarter included a $285 million fund for Web3 startups launched by Lightspeed Faction and a $10 billion Web3 fund dedicated to virtual reality, the metaverse and nonfungible tokens by China’s state-owned National Engineering Laboratory.