Hydraventures

Hydra Ventures operates as the first decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structured as a fund-of-funds, concentrating its efforts on investing in and incubating other investment DAOs within the web3 landscape. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, the organization emerged from the experiences of MetaCartel Ventures (MCV), an early for-profit investment DAO established in 2019. The core concept was developed by the pseudonymous venture capitalist Pet3rpan, a partner at 1kx who was also instrumental at MCV. The founding team includes Shawn Dimantha, Victor Rortvedt, Peter Yuan Pan, Ben Middleton, Danny Carpio, and Larry Florio, who bring a diverse range of experiences from companies like Google and Blackstone, as well as backgrounds in law, engineering, and crypto investment.

The firm's business model is centered on deploying capital and providing comprehensive support to its portfolio DAOs. This includes guidance on community coordination, investment strategies, organizational and incentive design, and back-office functions like legal, tax, and accounting. In March 2023, Hydra Ventures announced a $10 million fundraise with participation from notable web3 entities such as 1kx, Collab+Currency, and Consensys Mesh. The capital is allocated to between 20 and 30 investment DAOs, with investment sizes reaching up to $500,000, and includes plans to incubate several DAOs as a day-one partner. The organization is owned and operated by its more than 70 members, who are active participants across the investment DAO ecosystem.

Hydra Ventures' investment thesis focuses on specialized, community-driven investment DAOs. The firm targets organizations with a specific domain focus—such as DeFi, metaverse, or DeSci—as well as those built around emerging social networks or possessing deep operational expertise. By backing these specialized entities, Hydra aims to foster a more robust and diverse ecosystem for decentralized investment, establishing new standards for how these organizations are structured and operated. The ultimate goal is to empower communities of builders, founders, and investors to become self-sustaining capital allocators.

Keywords: fund-of-funds, investment DAO, web3, decentralized autonomous organization, venture capital, community investing, crypto, incubation, DeFi, capital allocation