Temasek, Republic-backed blockchain fund eyes raising US$100 million

SUPERSCRYPT, a blockchain venture capital company backed by Temasek Holdings, plans to raise up to US$100 million for its second investment fund, according to people familiar with the matter.  

Singapore’s state-owned investment company Temasek has been lined up as an anchor investor in the new fund alongside the New York-based fintech firm Republic, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the fundraising effort is private. 

Together, Temasek and Republic would act as general partners in the new vehicle. The process is ongoing and the final amount could change, the people said. 

Temasek in 2022 wrote down a US$275 million investment in Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraudulent digital-asset exchange FTX. Senior Temasek staff had their salaries slashed in the aftermath of the debacle. The firm’s chief investment officer said the following year that it wasn’t actively looking to back any crypto exchanges amid regulatory uncertainty.

FTX’s demise capped a bruising year for crypto investors marked by multiple bankruptcies, setting off a prolonged slump for the sector. But venture capital inflows into digital-asset firms have gradually picked up again this year in line with a broader crypto rally led by Bitcoin.

A spokesperson for Temasek declined to comment on the raise. Superscrypt and Republic didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg News. 

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Superscrypt was seeded by Temasek, according to its LinkedIn page. The company focuses on early-stage investments in areas including protocols that make blockchains “more useable,” as well as applications that rely on web3 technology. The term web3 refers to a vision of the Internet underpinned by blockchains.  

Superscrypt has been investing since 2022, according to The Block Pro’s records, and has bet on startups including Space and Time, a Microsoft-backed software developer, and blockchain operator Aptos Labs. It has invested in more than 20 projects in total, according to its website. 

Republic, which has itself raised hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists, runs a platform that curates investments spanning startup equity to crypto on behalf of individual investors. In May 2022, Axios reported that the company planned to raise up to US$700 million for a pair of crypto-heavy investment funds. BLOOMBERG