Point72 Ventures has made its first investment into a cryptocurrency company after supporting Messari, Inc.
Venture capital firm, 72Ventures, has officially invested in its first cryptocurrency company. Point72 Ventures is the venture capital branch of Pont72 Asset Management that specializes in financial services, artificial intelligence, enterprise technologies, and healthcare. The company was founded by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, who also serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Point72 Asset Management.
A press release states that Point72 Ventures led the Series A funding round for Messari Inc. As part of the deal, an operating partner at Pont72 Ventures, Adam Carson, will join the Messari board. The round raised $21 million for the analytics firm and saw participation from previous investors “Coinbase Ventures, Uncork Capital and Underscore VC. New investors to Messari include Alameda Capital, Blockchain Ventures, CMS Holdings, Gemini Frontier Found, Kraken Ventures, and Nascent.”
In a statement, co-founder and CEO of Messari, Ryan Selkis stated that “Point72 Ventures is an ideal partner for us as we work to onboard new legacy financial institutions to our products. At the same time, the support from a wide range of crypto’s leading strategic investors puts us in a strong position to expand our product suite for token creators, and provide services that help their projects get better integrated into core industry infrastructure.”
Messari says that the new capital will broaden its cryptocurrency enterprise offerings along with expanding its institutional footprint. One project this will help fund is the Messari Asset Coverage Support (MACS), “a research tool that simplifies onboarding, integration, and support of new crypto assets for institutional compliance and product teams.”
Point72 Ventures makes first investment in crypto
The investment in Messari Inc. is the first time Point72 Ventures has backed a cryptocurrency company since its founding in 2016. Since opening its doors, Point72 Ventures has primarily backed early-stage financial technology companies to the tune of $500 million in private investments over the last six years.
In July, the hedge fund was reportedly in the market for a head of cryptocurrency and Cohen was looking to put a significant amount of money into the market. That story was preceded by news that Point72 had spoken with inventors about the firm’s plans to explore investments into cryptocurrency via its flagship hedge fund or a private unit.
Point72 Asset Management is one of the largest in the world and is currently valued at $22 billion.
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