Portal Ventures raises $75 million fund to invest in pre-seed crypto startups amid bump in venture financing

Venture firm Portal Ventures is set to close a $75 million fund geared towards investing in pre-seed crypto startups, the company announced on X on Thursday. This will mark Portal’s second fund, raising its total amount to $115 million, according to SEC filings.

Portal zeroes in on ground-level opportunities and places an emphasis on writing a startup’s “first check,” it explained in its announcement. 

“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,” it said. 

The fund, while relatively small compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars venture capitalists were able to raise during the height of the pandemic-era bull market, represents the latest in a string of recent raises across the sector. It comes amid a moment of exuberance following the nomination of President-elect Donald Trump and a wide market rally. 

Portal’s backers include a number names familiar to crypto advocates including a16z’s Chris Dixon and Marc Andreessen, KKR’s Henry Kravis and executives from Insight Partners, Fortune reported . The round was reportedly oversubscribed and could come in at around $90 million.

The partners, Evan Fisher and Catrina Wang, invested in a number of bitcoin-related entities using their first $40 million raised during the crypto craze in early 2022. This time, the partners say they are expanding their horizon into tokenizable commodities like air rights and uranium and the infrastructure needed to make that happen.