Dear Friends and Family,

We hope this BFC Friends & Family update finds you well.

Here is what we have been up to lately:

First Closing Completed

We are thrilled to announce that we have completed our first fund closing on March 1, 2023.

We are deeply grateful for the trust that our investors have placed in us, and we want to express our heartfelt appreciation for their support.

Also a big “Thank You” to the many great people who have supported us in the background with advice, legal, tax and fund administrational support and general encouragement. It takes a village to raise a fund!

It's a very personal matter because investors ultimately invest in people they trust, not companies. And we will do everything in our means to not let you down.

We have recently been reminded (and encouraged) by a long-term VC veteran and former colleague that first-time funds statistically have better returns than non-first-time funds.

We are determined to continue this track record by identifying and investing in the most promising Web3 startups together with our venture capital colleagues from around the world.

But as the saying goes, "After one fund closing comes the next fund closing," and so we are working now on the second closing.

If you know any private or institutional investors who are keen on backing emerging micro-fund managers in a rapidly growing tech space, we'd be grateful for any introductions you can make.

Our Davos Event

On January 19, we had the honor of co-hosting the Davos Web3 Investor Gathering 2023 with many keynote speeches and panels.

We were incredibly proud to welcome as speakers such esteemed guests like Yat Siu (Founder of Animoca Brands), Tim Dierckxsens (Founder of Venly), Sebastien Borget (Founder of Sandbox), Anthony Scaramucci (Founder of SkyBridge), Ravindra Kumar (Founder of Frontier), Pranav Sharma (Founder of Woodstock Fund), Matt Dyer (CEO of Zilliqa) and so many more.

To all participants, sponsors, and guests, a big "Thank You" for joining our event. It was featured in Cointelegraph, and you can watch the panels and speeches on our YouTube channel.

Our personal takeaways from the week in Davos:

Blockchain is mainstream: There were so many events around blockchain that showed that the industry is vibrant and thriving. As with every new technology, there are teething problems, but the overall consensus was that crypto would gradually become part of the tech stack of every organization.

India is everywhere: Not just at our event, but India made a strong case as a key tech player to be reckoned with. The young demographics, the focus on science and math in education, and the fluency in English have already resulted in India accounting for 11% of blockchain developers worldwide.

We expect this number to increase strongly as the government continues to remove obstacles for Indian crypto companies and benefit from this huge pool of knowledge.

Meghdut RoyChowdhury, the Chief Innovation Officer of Techno India Group, also attended our event. As a private educational conglomerate, his company is an example of how India works towards increasing awareness about blockchain technology.

With NFTICALLY and its founder Toshendra Sharma, we already have one Indian company in our portfolio and believe it won’t be the last one.

Portfolio Updates

Although we only just had our first closing, we had a soft start resulting in already six portfolio companies.

Our most recent investment, Gameboard, continued its media tour at CES Las Vegas with a prominent visit by Seth Rogen, learning how games are cross-generational and meant to connect people and ETHDenver where gamers from around the world could test drive the device.

There's nothing quite like seeing users' reactions to our startups’ products being used out in the wild. It's like a songwriter hearing their song on the radio.

Gameboard has an incredible year ahead, with a major push for production and outstanding distribution alliances to look forward to.

Also, our portfolio company The Mirror scored big on Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch, a popular US TV show where Jared McCluskey and Alec Tremaine pitched their dream gaming business and won a new prominent investor.

Recommended

If we were to read only one daily crypto newsletter, it's definitely Blockworks.

We love Byron Gilliam's (he is their lead writer) fantastic insights into our industry and the many analogies that he draws coming from a long career in banking.

If you haven't done so already, you should definitely subscribe.

We’re Investing!

We're always on the lookout for founders who use web3 tech to solve problems 10x better, faster, or cheaper. Got a great team in mind? Let us know!

And if you know someone who would find this newsletter interesting, please feel free to pass it along to them.

Thanks for reading!

Wolfgang, Ben, and Sagar