Crypto venture studio Thesis raises $21 million in Series A funding

Thesis, a crypto venture studio behind the projects like tBTC, has raised $21 million in a Series A funding round.

The round was co-led by ParaFi Capital and Nascent, with participation from Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital, and Draper Associates. Angel investors, including Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, Summa (acquired by Celo) founder James Prestwich, and Bison Trails (acquired by Coinbase) protocol specialist Viktor Bunin, also participated in the round, among others.

As part of the deal, Nascent co-founder Dan Elitzer has also joined Thesis's board of directors, Thesis founder and CEO Matt Luongo told The Block.

The Series A funding was secured via an equity round, said Luongo, adding that it will help launch new projects, including a Web 3 wallet. Thesis is also looking to expand its tech capabilities, enter new markets, and grow its ecosystems, said Luongo, without disclosing specific details.

Founded in 2014, Thesis builds projects and teams in-house, meaning it doesn’t invest in or take on externally developed projects like venture capital firms or startup incubators. Thesis's projects to date include Fold — a bitcoin-rewards debit card; Keep Network/ tBTC — a decentralized protocol that has built tBTC, an Ethereum-based token backed one-to-one by bitcoin, along with Summa and the Cross-Chain Group; and Saddle — a decentralized exchange for swapping stablecoins.

“Thesis is one of the best repeat builders in our ecosystem, leveraging their early crypto expertise to bring to market technology that plays a pivotal role in making crypto more dynamic and accessible," said Santiago Roel Santos, partner at ParaFi Capital.

As part of its expansion plans, Thesis is looking to grow its current team of around 40 across all projects, Luongo told The Block. The venture studio is hiring engineers, designers, and product ideators to build decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, he said.

The Series A brings Thesis's total funding to date to $26.5 million. The studio has previously raised $5.5 million in an equity round, said Luongo. Thesis's projects, on the other hand, including Keep, Saddle, and Fold, have collectively raised over $42 million, said Luongo.