Deal Box, a capital market advisory and token-offering packaging platform, announced Wednesday that its venture arm has been launched.
It plans to invest $125,000,000 in startups using web3 technology, which may include sports initiatives.
“We believe in the transformative power of web3, and we plan to invest in both web3 startups and companies that use web3 technology, including blockchain, to impact and reshape people’s everyday lives,” Thomas Carter, CEO of Deal Box, said to TechCrunch.
Deal Box was established in 2005. According to its website, it has over $200 million in total deal flow and more than 500 packaged clients.
It has partnered to invest-and-digital asset-focused businesses such as Tezos and Vertalo, tZERO and Texture Capital, Fundopolis, Resolute Capital Partners and Fundopolis, to name a few.
Deal Box Ventures will be the venture arm of the company. It will target startups in five areas: emerging growth and real estate, fintech and social impact, and what it calls “FunTech,” where it will examine “action sports and innovative leisure products that are changing the way we rest, play, and relax,” the company said.
“On the FunTech side, we know that football, soccer and basketball teams have emerged as behemoths in terms of team valuations,” Carter said. “There’s a lot of consolidation opportunities in action sports and the potential is quite large. It’s an extraordinary moment for these action sports categories as they become institutionalized and more recognized.”
Each fund totals $25 million, and the sum across the five funds is $125 million, Carter said. “This will be an achievable target to raise per fund, and we will have larger funds launching after.” This amount is “the best foundation for achieving the results we want to achieve over the next three to five years,” Carter added.
Carter shared that Deal Box has taken strategic institution funds from family offices as well as high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth individuals. Carter shared that institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, and other family offices have also expressed interest. “We’ve raised just $5 million so far and are close to $40 million.”
As part of its web3 investment thesis, the firm closed strategic investments in three startups: Total Network Services and Rypplzz.
Carter stated that the resilience of web3 companies to weather the downturn should indicate that they are “doing something significant that meets a real market need and hopefully good decision making.” Deal Box hopes that it will show founders and investors alike that web3 technology and blockchain can be used without violating the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s boundaries.
Carter stated that technology has never had a greater impact on innovation and everyday life than it does now. This is the beginning of a new wave. The fourth industrial revolution is on the horizon.
