Zug,25.09.2018

Crypto Valley Venture Capital pledges $100 million for blockchain start-ups

The new Crypto Valley Venture Capital company has announced that, over the next few years, it intends to invest as much as $100 million in blockchain firms, on condition they move to Zug.

The news of the investment was announced by Mathias Ruch, the CEO of CV VC, a venture capital company specialising investing in blockchain companies solely. Ruch (photograph) was speaking as he presented the new company along with co-founder Olaf Hannemann and colleagues Ralf Glabischnig and Marco Bumbacher.

Behind the new venture is the Lakeside Partners blockchain advisory company, which was also founded by the three afore-mentioned entrepreneurs. They claimed that, over the past 18 months, Lakeside Partners has supported over 1,000 start-up companies involved in blockchain technology, not least by being instrumental in setting up such events as the Blockchain Competition and the Blockchain Summit. In addition, they have set up the Crypto Valley Labs co-working space in the city of Zug.

As these new start-up companies have progressed, they have ironed out initial difficulties and, what is more, they are far better financed than before. Furthermore, Ruch welcomed the fact traditional investors, “the old economy”, were now discovering what Crypto Valley had to offer, with financial analysts now speaking of the blockchain industry “coming of age” and as confirmed by a group of investors CV VC supports as co-founders; these include Daniel Grossen, of Scout 24 and the Grossen Invest AG company, Christian Jaag of Swiss Economics and the Center for Crypto Ecomonics, Alex Wassmer of Kibag and the Club zum Rennweg and Lorenz Furrer of Furrerhugi and Swiss Blockchain Taskforce.

One special feature of CV VC is that it can offer tailor-made support solutions for these new companies, with those chosen by CV VC able to benefit from backing to the tune of $125,000 in addition to coaching by experts (from abroad, too) for up to three months in Zug. As for a place to work and even sleep, this will be provided by Crypto Valley Labs near Zug station, hence the young entrepreneurs will not have to worry about expensive Zug rents. In return, CV VC will benefit from being entitled to 8 per cent of the shares or tokens of the new companies.

CV VC is looking to help up to 60 such start-up companies a year. Indeed, they can already register their interest on the CV VC’s website, with some ten a day currently showing interest. However, the conditions for selection are quite tough, with only three or four out of each hundred considered. The long-term aim is to lure the future Alibabas of the blockchain business to Zug, Alibaba being the highly successful Chinese IT company which started off in the Nineties.

In addition to all this, Ruch and his colleagues want to set up between six and ten hubs around the world, i.e. in Europe Asia, North America and possibly the United Arab Emirates, too.

CV VC is quite confident about the amount of money, namely between $50-100 million, it plans to invest in such start-up companies over the next five years, with additional funding on offer for more mature players in blockchain, too.

Whenever crypto this or that is mentioned, it is inevitable that the subject of Initial Coin Offerings comes up. So far Swiss banks have declined to accept firms operating in this area as customers, because of their possible link to money-laundering. However, as of last Thursday, change could be in the air, with the Zuger Kantonalbank and two others in Italian and French-speaking Switzerland busy working out procedures which could lead to them helping.

While on crypto-currencies, the Tamedia publishing company has announced it is to invest in the Zug-based Lykke company, a globally operating blockchain-based market place for the simple administration and trade in crypto-currencies, though no details of the amount invested were divulged.

Lykke employs a staff of 25 in Switzerland with a further 80 worldwide.