Castle Island Ventures announces new $250 million fund for web3 investments

Cryptocurrency and blockchain venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures announced Wednesday it has raised $250 million for a new fund. 

The Boston-based firm, which has invested in the likes of BlockFi, Bitwise and River Financial, said in a Medium post that the new fund will “support [its] mission to partner with visionary entrepreneurs building transformative companies powered by public blockchains.”

The fund, dubbed Castle Island Ventures III,  will focus on three main areas: Internet architecture (such as web3), financial services and monetary networks. Investors include endowments, asset managers and family offices. 

Nic Carter, a prolific commentator and writer in the crypto space, leads Castle Island with fellow Fidelity Investments alumni Matt Walsh. They launched the firm in 2018. 

“The thing that is exciting about this space now is that the addressable markets keep getting bigger,” Walsh told The Block, pointing to money markets and internet data monopolies as areas that have already seen huge growth in recent years. 

Walsh said that the fund will look to invest in more Series A rounds as a wave of projects come to market.

The fund has already signed the term sheets on its first deal, which will be announced in the coming months. 

The firm also said it had promoted principal Ria Bhutoria to a general partner and is set to grow its team significantly over the next year. Bhutoria moved over to the fund from Fidelity, where she was director of research, in April last year. 

The launch comes just a year after the firm announced the launch of its $50 million venture fund in February 2021.