Portal Fund 2: Our Story and What We Love Doing
Evan Fisher | 11-14-2024
We're incredibly proud to announce the launch of our oversubscribed $75M Portal Ventures
Fund 2. We exclusively lead crypto pre-seeds with the first check in. Across our two funds we’ve now raised $115M. We focus on putting founders first. We don’t do much marketing.
With the launch of Fund 2, however, I wanted to share more on who we are and what we believe.
Crypto is an industry that requires high conviction. Prior to launching Portal, I was an investor at Insight Partners. Insight was founded in 1995 to back software founders in what was, at the time, a cottage industry. Since then, they’ve raised $90B+ and had 50+ IPOs across the portfolio.
Leaving that seat was not an easy decision, but I saw a similar opportunity. Build a firm that is purpose-built to back the emerging protocol economy.
When launching Fund 1, I was fortunate to have a great investor base for support and mentorship. Our investors include Midas list investors, decacorn founders, and Managing Partners of large funds across asset classes like Deven Parekh of Insight Partners, Kyle Samani of Multicoin, and Henry Kravis of KKR. There are so many people that helped me get here, but I’ll never forget Deven, Jeff, Ian, Nikhil, and David from Insight for being my first-ever investors and supporters.
Launching in early 2022 presented a slew of challenges. While crypto rallied to ATHs and mentions of the supercycle peaked, we grounded ourselves in the age-old Buffett quote “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
As the year went on, exuberance evaporated with the crash of Luna and FTX. Fear filled the markets, it was go-time. We wired for one of our most exciting early lead investments within weeks of the FTX crash. From Q4 2022 through all of 2023, we were aggressive. As some told us to pivot to AI or ‘slow our deployment,’ we ran faster… We grounded in our conviction and ran into what looked like a burning market. It was the right decision.
When we started raising for Fund 2 earlier this year, BTC was still ~40% down from its ATH and many still questioned the viability of the industry. We’re super thankful to the teams at Accolade, Theta, and CrossLayer for betting big on us early on. An investor base that can see through the cycles lets us focus on what we love…
... And there are really two things that I love most about what we’re doing at Portal:
1. Backing founders with high conviction on day zero builds special relationships:
We’re the first believers. Building in a volatile, emerging industry is a highly personal experience. It’s incredibly rewarding to see founders grow from an individual with an idea, to the leader of a category-creating product with a large team and scaled business. We’re on the rollercoaster with our founders. We take the late-night calls. We can relate when it feels like the world is ending. And we certainly celebrate the wins.
2. Crypto is a new asset class:
New asset classes create new types of investment firms. There is no age-old playbook on being a world-class crypto investor, just as there was no PE playbook in the ‘80s or venture software playbook in the ‘90s. We get to think from first principles and help write the rules on investing in an industry that will create tens of trillions of dollars of market cap. Opportunities like this don’t come along often.
Like I mentioned above, building a crypto business is a volatile and highly personal experience. As a founder, there are a few things you should know about us:
1. We focus on one thing and do it well: Leading the pre-seed / first institutional round of category creating crypto businesses and protocols.
2. Thesis-driven: We invest only where we've done the homework. Our unique insights make us valuable thought partners to our founders, and at times extensions of the founding team.
3. Nothing is too early: We've backed companies without a whitepaper / deck. We underwrite the founder and sector. We roll up our sleeves to help navigate PMF and open our networks to unlock opportunities.
4. Back one per category: We make high-conviction bets. It’s the only way to be all-in with our founders.
5. "Who you see is who you get": Both of us run full stack, from research and sourcing to investment decisions and post-investment support. Building a company is highly personal experience. We believe in a direct and personal approach to working together.
With our new $75M Fund 2, we’re excited to double down on what we do best: leading first-check investments into category-creating protocol businesses. Onwards and upwards.
With the launch of Fund 2, however, I wanted to share more on who we are and what we believe.
Crypto is an industry that requires high conviction. Prior to launching Portal, I was an investor at Insight Partners. Insight was founded in 1995 to back software founders in what was, at the time, a cottage industry. Since then, they’ve raised $90B+ and had 50+ IPOs across the portfolio.
Leaving that seat was not an easy decision, but I saw a similar opportunity. Build a firm that is purpose-built to back the emerging protocol economy.
When launching Fund 1, I was fortunate to have a great investor base for support and mentorship. Our investors include Midas list investors, decacorn founders, and Managing Partners of large funds across asset classes like Deven Parekh of Insight Partners, Kyle Samani of Multicoin, and Henry Kravis of KKR. There are so many people that helped me get here, but I’ll never forget Deven, Jeff, Ian, Nikhil, and David from Insight for being my first-ever investors and supporters.
Launching in early 2022 presented a slew of challenges. While crypto rallied to ATHs and mentions of the supercycle peaked, we grounded ourselves in the age-old Buffett quote “be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
As the year went on, exuberance evaporated with the crash of Luna and FTX. Fear filled the markets, it was go-time. We wired for one of our most exciting early lead investments within weeks of the FTX crash. From Q4 2022 through all of 2023, we were aggressive. As some told us to pivot to AI or ‘slow our deployment,’ we ran faster… We grounded in our conviction and ran into what looked like a burning market. It was the right decision.
When we started raising for Fund 2 earlier this year, BTC was still ~40% down from its ATH and many still questioned the viability of the industry. We’re super thankful to the teams at Accolade, Theta, and CrossLayer for betting big on us early on. An investor base that can see through the cycles lets us focus on what we love…
... And there are really two things that I love most about what we’re doing at Portal:
1. Backing founders with high conviction on day zero builds special relationships:
We’re the first believers. Building in a volatile, emerging industry is a highly personal experience. It’s incredibly rewarding to see founders grow from an individual with an idea, to the leader of a category-creating product with a large team and scaled business. We’re on the rollercoaster with our founders. We take the late-night calls. We can relate when it feels like the world is ending. And we certainly celebrate the wins.
2. Crypto is a new asset class:
New asset classes create new types of investment firms. There is no age-old playbook on being a world-class crypto investor, just as there was no PE playbook in the ‘80s or venture software playbook in the ‘90s. We get to think from first principles and help write the rules on investing in an industry that will create tens of trillions of dollars of market cap. Opportunities like this don’t come along often.
Like I mentioned above, building a crypto business is a volatile and highly personal experience. As a founder, there are a few things you should know about us:
1. We focus on one thing and do it well: Leading the pre-seed / first institutional round of category creating crypto businesses and protocols.
2. Thesis-driven: We invest only where we've done the homework. Our unique insights make us valuable thought partners to our founders, and at times extensions of the founding team.
3. Nothing is too early: We've backed companies without a whitepaper / deck. We underwrite the founder and sector. We roll up our sleeves to help navigate PMF and open our networks to unlock opportunities.
4. Back one per category: We make high-conviction bets. It’s the only way to be all-in with our founders.
5. "Who you see is who you get": Both of us run full stack, from research and sourcing to investment decisions and post-investment support. Building a company is highly personal experience. We believe in a direct and personal approach to working together.
With our new $75M Fund 2, we’re excited to double down on what we do best: leading first-check investments into category-creating protocol businesses. Onwards and upwards.