A&T Capital's First Anniversary Message: We Invest in Founders
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A&T Capital's First Anniversary Message: We Invest in Founders
The crypto space is full of opportunities.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsA&T Capital One-Year Anniversary Message
Hello everyone, A&T Capital has officially been established for one year.
In 2021, we raised $100 million from LPs including the world’s largest fintech groups. Since then, we have focused on investing in web3 startups from seed to Series B rounds, becoming one of the few crypto venture funds with full coverage across North America, Europe, and Asia.
On the occasion of our first anniversary, we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce A&T Capital more deeply.
Who We Are and What Drives Us?
A&T Capital was founded by three partners based in Berlin, Singapore, and Shanghai, supported by a strong global team of researchers and analysts.
Since 2014, our three partners have maintained a proven investment track record in blockchain and crypto. Our diverse backgrounds in high-tech, TradFi, and venture capital help us better understand what it takes for a company to succeed. Having witnessed the evolution of the entire crypto industry and handled a wide range of investment cases, we are committed to providing long-term support to our portfolio companies!
The following observations about industry developments shape our perspective on the crypto market:
Disruptive New Talent
As Layer 1 platforms gain prominence and multiply, new talent continues to be drawn into the industry. Some may not be native to crypto, but their exceptional operational capabilities, market expansion skills, and mature market strategies have proven critical in helping projects grow faster and larger.
Never before has the crypto space welcomed such diverse backgrounds so openly, attracting broad expertise with the depth and breadth of skills needed to elevate the industry to higher levels.
Therefore, we strongly welcome this new wave of talent and actively support innovative projects with fresh perspectives. For us, the excellence of the founding team matters far more than whether they are crypto natives.
Disruption Caused by Regulatory Uncertainty
Although we may not like to admit it, governments around the world still lack clear policies toward distributed ledger technology, and every policy shift has profound and direct impacts on the industry. Still, as early pioneers entering this field, we understand that several failed iterations are necessary before optimal practices emerge.
China once accounted for about 75% of Bitcoin's hash rate.Due to China’s unique conditions—abundant technically skilled entrepreneurs, low-cost energy, and continuous innovation momentum—China had long dominated global crypto mining. In China, a vibrant ecosystem of investors, startups, and users flourished until May 2021, when the State Council announced a crackdown on cryptocurrency mining (followed by broader measures against the crypto industry), forcing the Chinese crypto sector to relocate.
In 2013, Germany became the first country to recognize Bitcoin as a "Unit of Account."It attracted early builders and communities, leading to the birth of many important projects. In 2020, when the pandemic hit Europe and forced companies into remote work, it significantly weakened the network effects of crypto hubs like Berlin and reduced their appeal to early-stage founders. This led to the emergence of new hubs like Lisbon, which successfully attracted founders seeking tax advantages and lower living costs.
Having witnessed the rise and fall of several crypto centers, our goal is to support startups with flexible management models, founders with international vision and experience, and the ability to navigate today’s uncertain and evolving regulatory frameworks.
Investment Value Beyond Capital
Capital is cheap.
The real value of investing comes from the benefits, resources, and support investors can provide to projects.Over the past year, confidence in crypto among investors has increased significantly. In 2018, only a few crypto projects could attract attention from traditional institutional investors. But since 2020, we’ve seen institutions become increasingly active even in early-stage investments. As a result, the investment landscape has inevitably become more crowded, and the barriers created by capital alone have diminished.
Launching our fund in such a competitive environment excites us. We occupy a unique position in the industry, able to support promising decentralized technology startups in fully realizing their potential through our deep understanding of different markets, extensive geographic networks, and product-focused approach.
Time to Enhance Product Competitiveness for the Next Wave of Users
For products, code may be open-source, forkable, and replicable, but true competitive advantage lies in building great products—which is hard to copy. Crypto has evolved to a stage where improving user experience truly matters. Yet due to poor or misaligned product-market fit, building successful products remains challenging, and we’ve seen many fail as a result.
Believing that product thinking is shaped through rich experience, we’ve assembled a group of seasoned product managers to serve our portfolio companies. Earlier this year, we established a standing A&T Capital Product Committee to help our portfolio stand out in competition. The committee includes early employees from tech giants like Alipay, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, who bring broad expertise in engineering, product, legal, and business development. Click the link at the bottom to read more about the Product Committee.
We Invest in Founders
Only exceptional founders can endure harsh realities—after all, everything can go wrong
The crypto space is full of opportunities. We choose to focus on areas where we have prior experience and can directly deliver maximum value. Listed below are the projects we invested in across each sector last year, deploying over $30 million.
This year, we plan to focus on products serving a broad user base, including both new and advanced users. Given the current state of the industry (see observations above), we believe it’s time to invest in the next wave of killer infrastructure projects.
Therefore, we encourage founders building web3 applications in areas such as SocialFi, wallets, DID, and essential tools (e.g., communication protocols) to reach out. Our team has deep expertise to help you shape your product.
A Message to Our LPs and Founders...
Building a new fund can be extremely challenging, but we’ve received tremendous support from you. We sincerely thank our LPs, business partners, and founders who have consistently trusted us. We believe the world stands on the brink of a lasting technological revolution, and we aim to play a significant role within it.
Luck is a key factor in achieving extraordinary success in business, but experience, connections, and knowledge increase the likelihood of luck striking. We leverage these assets to support and empower entrepreneurs in achieving their goals.
Last but not least,致敬 to all the thriving entrepreneurs building the new era.
The future is now…
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