6 cases when venture funds have prepared ICO
These are the people who have spent and are preparing to spend ICO. It is also known that ICO mechanisms are also studied by Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
Blockchain Capital
The Blockchain Capital venture fund held an ICO in May, the fund itself called it an experiment to create a "liquid venture fund". During the first six hours of Blockchain Capital III (so called the fund, for filling which it was necessary to ICO) "raised" $10 million. It is planned that the fund, which was formed at the expense of ICO, will subsequently invest in ICO promising blockchain projects, according to its analysts. Blockchain Capital hopes to become an industry benchmark - the sale of Blockchain Capital tokens met all the requirements of the United States securities laws.
FinShi Capital
ICO registered in Singapore (but known as Russian) fund FinShi Capital started on September 6, it managed to "raise" $21.4 million, the price of one token was $1. The fund plans to invest in blockchain projects. FinShi Capital and the Skolkovo Foundation have signed preliminary agreements on cooperation to withdraw Russian projects to ICO, but no concrete steps have been announced so far.
Starta Accelerator
On July 4, ICO Starta Accelerator gained $1.5 million for the first 15 minutes. Starta Accelerator is a Russian-American startup accelerator, which is not a venture fund, but is still included in this list for two reasons: firstly, it is connected with the Russian Starta Capital venture fund, and secondly, $5 million collected for ICO will be used for further investment in startups.
BlockStack
New York investment company Blockstack also announced the start of the tokensail soon. It is planned that Blockstack Signature fund will be fully formed from the funds that will come through ICO.
SPiCE Capital
Tokensale of British SPiCE Capital is still open, the amount of the desired fee is not mentioned by the organizers. Like their colleagues at Blockchain Capital, they want to create a "liquid venture fund" and change the traditional venture capital model, which assumes that investors invest in projects for several years (by an average of 5-7 years). Given that not everyone can afford to actually freeze projects for such a period of time, SPiCE Capital has come up with a hybrid model that combines the best of traditional venture capital mechanisms and blockchain opportunities, they say. The amount of each investor's investment in SPiCE Capital will be fixed on blockchain and tokens that investors will receive in exchange for their funds, and can be exchanged for other cryptographic assets at any time and thus withdraw from the fund.
Pulsar Venture Capital
On November 13, the Russian fund Pulsar Venture Capital announced the start of the tokensail. It is planned that part of the funds raised during ICO will be invested in 29 technology startups that make up the fund's portfolio. Another part is in the expansion of the portfolio. Pulsar VC expects to add another 3 dozen startups to its portfolio, specializing in IT, Internet of Things, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and ultra-modern materials production. All investors, i.e. token buyers, will become owners of shares in portfolio companies.