Blockchain Builders Closes $28 Million Fund I for Stanford Ecosystem

Blockchain Builders, a venture fund deeply embedded in the Stanford blockchain ecosystem, has successfully closed its oversubscribed $28 million Fund I. This fund is dedicated to investing in pre-seed and seed-stage blockchain ventures, with a particular focus on Stanford’s pioneering crypto community and exceptional founders from other top institutions.

The fund, founded by Stanford graduate students Gil Rosen, Kun Peng, and Steven Willinger, has already deployed over $16 million in 40 blockchain ventures. These ventures span a wide range of sectors including AI, infrastructure, DeFi, DePIN, payments, and real-world assets (RWAs). The eight-year Fund I is on track to deploy the remaining capital by the end of the year, with multiple projects preparing for token generation events (TGEs).

Notable portfolio companies include modular AI blockchain 0G, supercomputer venture Nexus Labs, open-access AI cloud Hyperbolic, and blockless layer-one Pod. These companies have received investments from prominent venture capital firms, highlighting the potential and innovation within the blockchain space.

Kun Peng, co-founder of Blockchain Builders, emphasized the fund’s origins and mission. “Blockchain Builders was born from our firsthand experience scaling the Stanford blockchain ecosystem,” he said. The fund’s initiatives, including Stanford’s Blockchain Accelerator, the BASS (Blockchain Application Stanford Summit) conference series, and the MS&E 447 Blockchain Entrepreneurship course, have supported over 200 founders, 400 students, and nearly 5,000 cumulative attendees. These efforts provide a deep network to inspire, support, and mentor new founders for success.

Professor David Tse, founder of Babylon, highlighted Stanford’s extensive history of blockchain research and innovation. “Stanford has an extensive history of blockchain research and innovation including the Tse Lab that I run, the Center for Blockchain Research, and coursework like my EE 374 course on blockchain infrastructure,” he said. The university’s initiatives, such as the BASS events and the MS&E 447 entrepreneurship course, along with the Stanford blockchain accelerator, have further nurtured its founder ecosystem and the number of blockchain startups launching.

The fund’s leadership brings extensive experience across traditional finance and crypto. Willinger previously led Coinbase Ventures, invested at Capital One Ventures, and worked in product and partnerships at Blockstream and Google / Google X. Rosen, a prolific angel investor, bootstrapped a 100-employee venture, building distributed compute infrastructure for JPMorgan, London Stock Exchange, and the IRS, exiting to AI platform NGData. Peng has extensive founder experience in Web 3.0, spanning crypto analytics and indexing, NFT, DeFi, and infrastructure.

Gil Rosen, co-founder of Blockchain Builders, noted the advantages of their deep Stanford ties. “Our deep Stanford ties give us early access to high potential founders who value our hands-on approach,” he said. The fund’s strategy involves rolling up their sleeves and diving into the details of strategy, go-to-market (GTM) plans, and fundraising, positioning founders optimally for competitive follow-on rounds led by tier-one investors.

As Blockchain Builders looks ahead to Fund II, the team is expanding its support to the new IC3-Cornell accelerator, which includes Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Yale, and UCL. The fund is also collaborating on thought-leading events with the Ethereum Foundation, Solana, Starkware, BASE, and more, scaling its mission of supporting founders nationwide.

Blockchain Builders is a venture fund investing in pre-seed and seed-stage blockchain founders, primarily sourced from the Stanford ecosystem. Led by experienced builders and operators with a passion for early ventures, the team supplements its capital investment with hands-on support to ensure founder success. The team’s initiatives include Stanford’s Blockchain Accelerator, the BASS conference series, MS&E 447, as well as strategic partnerships with leading academic institutions to foster the next generation of Blockchain Builders.