The past couple of years have been challenging, and sometimes deadly, for many crypto and web3 startups, but Dan Tapiero, CEO, CIO and managing partner of 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners, is not worried.
In fact, in the midst of raising the firm’s fourth fund, he seems to be positively cheery about the state of the crypto market despite how things are going. “The deals right now are incredible,” he told TechCrunch+. “It’s the single best time to invest in companies . . . the prices in the secondary are 50% to 80% discounted from previous rounds — and that’s for companies that are doing well, too.”
Tapiero’s optimism isn’t that surprising when you think about the fact that this is a pretty big firm in the space. With over $1.2 billion in assets under management, 10T counts major crypto entities like Gemini, Kraken, Yuga Labs and Animoca Brands as part of its portfolio.
And 1RoundTable Partners (1RT), Tapiero’s growth-stage firm, is also raising a not-insignificant amount for its upcoming fund: a minimum of $200 million and up to $800 million. The new fund, slated to close in March, will focus on growth-stage companies across three major buckets — infrastructure, blockchain and financial services — as well as smaller buckets: blockchain gaming, NFTs and metaverse.
As the bear market thaws, Tapiero sees few other growth equity investors dedicated to the crypto space at this point in time. “It’s never been the case that the landscape has been this empty, so we’ll raise as much as we can. We’re seeing some strong interest from really large players like large family offices, sovereign entities or national entities that want exposure to the space and are essentially new,” he said, adding that the firm has taken in “a small bit of money” and has made some investments already.
Taking the long view
With the new fund, 1RT plans to make about 10 to 15 additional investments with hopes of gaining another five to 10 board seats across those portfolio companies, Tapiero said. “Not only will we be focused on investing in companies, we will potentially bring [more developed companies] public.”
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