Winklevoss Capital Management
Winklevoss Capital is a family office founded in 2012 by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Howard Winklevoss.[1] The firm invests across multiple asset classes including seed funding and infrastructure to early-stage startups.[2] The company is headquartered in New York’s Flatiron District.[2]
Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Venture Capital |
Founded | 2012 |
Founders | Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss |
Headquarters | Flatiron District, New York City , United States |
Key people | Sterling Witzke, Partner |
Website | winklevosscapital |
Cryptocurrencies
On April 11, 2012, Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss revealed ownership of approximately 1% of bitcoins in circulation, worth about $11 million,[3] via Winklevoss Capital.[4] The brothers began buying bitcoin when the value of a single coin was in the single digits.[4]
On July 1, 2013, Digital Asset Services, LLC (wholly owned by Winklevoss Capital) filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to create the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, an exchange-traded fund for bitcoin.[5][6]
In 2013, Winklevoss also lead a funding round for BitInstant, a bitcoin exchange start-up based in New York City. Winklevoss Capital, along with other investors, raised $1.5 million in seed funding to help BitInstant increase its staff and scale up its product.[3] Since then, Winklevoss Capital has invested in a number of early stage equity companies and token networks in the cryptocurrency space.
In 2014, Winklevoss Capital invested in Protocol Labs.[7] The firm also participated in the fundraising for Filecoin in 2017.
Venture capital activities
Winklevoss Capital actively invests in early stage startups in fintech, direct-to-consumer brands, education, and gaming. The firm's investments include:
- Animoca Brands[8]
- August Locks[9] (alongside Bessemer Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures)
- Bitski[10]
- Carbon38[11]
- Cabify[12] (alongside Rakuten)
- Caviar[13] (acquired by Square, Andreessen Horowitz was also an investor)
- Flexport[14] (alongside Founders Fund, Joe Lonsdale, SoftBank Vision Fund, and First Round Capital)
- FiscalNote[15] (alongside Temasek)
- Kindbody[16] (alongside Chelsea Clinton)
- L.
- Makespace[17] (alongside Carmelo Anthony and Nas)
- MemeBox[18]
- MeUndies
- Minibar[19]
- Rowing Blazers[20]
- Shinesty
- Teachable[21] (alongside Naval Ravikant)
Medical cannabis
In 2017, Winklevoss was expected to buy up to $500,000 worth of shares in Eaze, a cannabis delivery startup. After the new Eaze CEO was named, the firm backed out of the deal and in May 2016 was sued in Delaware court for reneging on the deal. Winklevoss is also an investor in Eaze and participated in its Series B financing round in 2016.[22]
References
- Thompson, Cadie (April 27, 2012). "The Cloud Is Going to Be Huge: Winklevoss Twins". CNBC. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- McKinley, Jesse (March 23, 2013). "Finding Their Next Facebook". New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- Taylor, Colleen (May 17, 2013). "With $1.5M Led By Winklevoss Capital, BitInstant Aims To Be The Go-To Site To Buy And Sell Bitcoins". Tech Crunch. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- Popper, Nathaniel (April 11, 2013). "Never Mind Facebook; Winklevoss Twins Rule in Digital Money". New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- Popper, Nathaniel (July 1, 2013). "Winklevoss Twins Plan First Fund for Bitcoins". New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- Abdel-Qader, Aziz (December 20, 2017). "The Race for First Bitcoin ETF Heats Up Again, ICE Files Application with SEC". Finance Magnates. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- Chernova, Yuliya (August 4, 2017). "In Landmark, Filecoin Offering Hauls in $52 Million". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
- "Animoca Brands raises US$358,888,888 at over US$5B valuation to grow the open metaverse".
- "August Raises $38 Million in Series B Funding". august.com.
- "Simple crypto wallet Bitski raises $3.5 million from Winklevoss Capital and Coinbase". November 13, 2019.
- Young, Vicki M. (January 23, 2018). "Foot Locker Makes $15M Investment in Carbon38".
- "Cabify raises $120m at a $320m valuation led by Rakuten to take on Uber in Latin America". April 20, 2016.
- Kolodny, Lora (April 29, 2014). "Caviar Raises $13M to Challenge Grubhub, Help Top Chefs Deliver". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
- Konrad, Alex. "Freight Startup Flexport Hits $3.2 Billion Valuation After $1 Billion Investment Led By SoftBank". Forbes.
- "Temasek, Winklevoss twins invest $7m in FiscalNote".
- "Kindbody raises $15M, will open a 'Fertility Bus' with mobile testing & assessments". April 16, 2019.
- "MakeSpace raises $30 million to pick up and stow your stuff". March 20, 2019.
- "With $29M In Funding, Memebox Brings Korean Beauty Products To The World". March 11, 2015.
- "Minibar Delivery alcohol marketplace picks up $5 million in funding". August 15, 2017.
- "Rowing Blazers Company Profile: Valuation & Investors | PitchBook". pitchbook.com.
- "Teachable books $4 million to turn everybody into educators online". January 26, 2017.
- Noto, Anthony (June 21, 2017). "Winklevoss brothers get sued for backing out of medical cannabis deal". New York Business Journal. Retrieved January 17, 2018.