Thesis Raises $21 Million Series A to Expand its Crypto Venture Studio

SAN FRANCISCO, July 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thesis announced today it has completed a $21 million Series A fundraise. Thesis is the venture builder behind some of the most impactful projects in crypto. Its portfolio includes Fold, Keep, Saddle and open source initiatives like tBTC that serve millions of users and hold over $300M in total value locked (TVL). Investors in the round include ParaFi Capital, Nascent, Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital, and Draper Associates among a wide set of other ecosystem operators, including Kain Warwick, James Prestwich, Viktor & Lisa Bunin, and Josh Cincinnati.

Founded in 2014, Thesis brings together the brightest minds to identify, develop, and build the best decentralized technologies. The team at Thesis has architected a winning model for identifying market needs across three focus areas: decentralized finance (DeFi), cross-chain interoperability, and consumer applications to drive mass adoption. Thesis builds and launches projects that serve as fundamental pillars of the crypto ecosystem through a unique approach to identifying the most compelling use cases, going deep on sophisticated technical concepts, and cultivating stellar leadership in their founders. Fold, the world’s first Bitcoin-backed rewards card with over $20m in sales activity a month, has raised a total of $20 million and is partnered with Visa to bring Bitcoin to consumers and drive mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Saddle is an automated market maker optimized for trading between pegged value crypto assets with $110.7 million TVL. Projects like Keep and tBTC position Thesis at the nexus of Bitcoin on Ethereum, serving as a protocol and underlying asset that play a key role in driving the $54.0 billion DeFi ecosystem. In order to increase opportunities for cross-market impact and value generation, Thesis builds projects that are complementary and interoperable with other projects in its portfolio.

Fundraising for a venture builder requires investment from partners who are mission-aligned and share a vision for the future of the industry. In order to build for the next generation of crypto users, Thesis has cultivated a network of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors who are working toward a common mission: to use decentralized technology to fight for the integrity and empowerment of the individual.

Thesis Founder and CEO Matt Luongo has led the studio since its inception and plans to use this investment as a catalyst to further ecosystem growth and to launch new Thesis projects. “We are thrilled to be supported by a collective of like-minded investors who are building technology that will drive a critical shift towards empowering the end user. This investment validates the Thesis model and will enable us to scale the studio and ultimately allow our operation to be self-sustaining in the years to come,” said Luongo.

Thesis adds ParaFi, Nascent, Fenbushi and others to its list of existing investors such as Polychain Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm.

“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. We're excited to partner with Thesis as the go-to incubator for the most impactful, mission-aligned projects in crypto and support them in their next phase of growth," said Santiago Roel Santos, Partner at ParaFi Capital.

“Building a successful product, company, or protocol is difficult in any ecosystem, and doing so repeatedly across multiple verticals is very rare. Matt and the Thesis team have paired their deep technical and industry knowledge with strategic foresight to build a novel venture studio model that has repeatedly allowed them to break new ground and expand the Thesis ecosystem. We at Nascent are thrilled to invest in this team and support them as they continue to innovate and define new categories within our space,” said Dan Elitzer, Co-Founder at Nascent.

In the months to come, Thesis will launch its fifth studio project, a Web3 wallet. In its continued growth, Thesis is seeking engineers, designers, and product thinkers to bring its decentralized technologies to life.

For more information, please visit Thesis.co.

About Thesis
Thesis is a group of engineers, designers, and visionaries bound by the shared belief that there is a better way to build the systems that power our world. The venture studio builds decentralized, permissionless tools and platforms that deliver control and privacy back to the individual. With half a million users, an engaged global community and dynamic partners, the Thesis portfolio offers a robust-and-growing suite of powerful applications that is driving the adoption of cutting-edge crypto technology.

Media Contact
Kara Miley, [email protected]