Variant, a crypto investment firm founded by Andreessen Horowitz veterans, has raised $450 million for a new umbrella fund split across a $150 million seed purse for web3 projects and a $300 million opportunities vehicle that will “double-down on projects with demonstrated traction in our portfolio”. The firm has previously invested in privacy-focused smart contract platform Aztec Network, Ethereum-based DeFi protocol Euler Finance, Polygon, and Uniswap.
Investment theses for Variant Fund III include financial empowerment through decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain computing, web3 consumer applications, and new forms of decentralized ownership.
Jesse Walden is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Variant. Jesse led the firm’s investments in Uniswap, Phantom, Mirror, Flashbots, Foundation, and others. Previously, Jesse was an investment partner on the first crypto fund at Andreessen Horowitz and later led a16z Crypto Startup School.
