Figment Capital seeks $50 million for second venture fund: source

Figment Capital, a crypto investment firm and a spin-off of staking infrastructure provider Figment, is launching its second fund.

The firm, spun out of Figment Inc. in 2021 to invest in early-stage blockchain infrastructure projects, did not disclose the size of the fund, but a source with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block that the fund is targeting a raise of $50 million and that the first close has already been completed.

Figment Capital believes everyone will be connected to blockchain technology in the next ten years, and to that end, it thinks better infrastructure and applications are needed.

“For blockchains to reach global adoption, they must solve four key challenges: Scalability, interoperability, privacy and user experience (UX),” said Figment Capital.

The fund’s investment thesis revolves around these four factors. For scalability, it looks to back projects that will scale blockchains both horizontally and vertically. It will also invest in startups building interoperability solutions, privacy rails and UX products.

Decentralized infrastructure

James Parillo, managing partner at Figment Capital, told The Block in an interview that more decentralized infrastructure is needed after the troubles in the crypto industry last year that saw the collapses of FTX, Celsius and BlockFi.

“A number of centralized actors that were trusted ultimately failed us. And we’ll continue to see that. So we truly believe that open, permissionless systems that are governed by communities and collectives are really the future,” said Parillo.

Parillo said Figment Capital’s unique value proposition is that it is an operator-investor, meaning it has the hands-on experience to help projects develop and scale. Figment is one of the largest staking services providers, providing infrastructure to more than 40 blockchains.

The Figment Capital fund II has already made two investments — Skip Protocol and Primev — said Parillo. Its previous investments from the fund I include Celestia, EigenLayer, Mysten Labs and zkSync. The first fund was worth $17.5 million.

Updates to clarify relationship between Figment Capital and Figment.