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Felix Capital gets $600 million for a new fund

Lucinda Shen
Illustration of a golden sparkling briefcase.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Felix Capital, a London-based consumer-focused venture investor, has raised $600 million for its fourth fund.

Why it matters: Felix Capital is diving deeper into crypto with this new fund, which shows that more traditional investors are using novel ways to dip their toes in the space.

Background: With a preference for leading rounds in early-stage companies, Felix Capital does have the ability to selectively invest in growth-stage businesses. It's been using that ability to invest in growth-stage crypto companies, jumping in the backseat to learn about the space and while taking on less risk.

  • "We really want to do this in collaboration with specialist funds," founder Frederic Court says. "We see ourselves as more of a complementary investor."
  • Last year, the firm made its first-ever investment in a crypto business, participating in Ledger's $380 million Series C round of funding — a decidedly not early-stage bet. It also participated in a $680 million round for Sorare.
  • Felix Capital, though, has also made one early-stage crypto bet, in Lightspark, a company co-founded by one of Diem's founders, David Marcus. But, again, it did not lead the investment.
  • "We are expanding our areas of focus to include web3," Court says.

Context: Having now raised $1.2 billion across all of its funds, Felix Capital has placed most of it bets on consumer-focused companies, like Deliveroo, Goop, Houzz and Oatly.

  • Court says he sees Felix Capital's consumer know-how as a benefit to more technical crypto-focused funds, while technical funds can help fill in gaps in Felix Capital's own knowledge around crypto.
  • Eventually, says Court, the fund might take leading roles in crypto companies.

The big picture: Felix Capital is diving deeper into crypto, but it's not a "crypto investor" in the sense that the majority of the fund is unlikely to be focused on the space, he adds.

💭 Thought bubble: Exposure to crypto for traditional funds is now a diversification strategy, but also a hedge against missing out on the crypto's upsurge.

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