Menu

Meet AV’s Blockchain Fund Investing Team

We introduce our team and discuss our strategy for sourcing and evaluating opportunities in Web3, the Metaverse, and more

Blockchain in the palm of a hand
Written by

Alumni Ventures

Published on

Read

2 min

Because of the enormous potential of blockchain technology and the speed at which the market is moving, we are starting to raise Blockchain Fund 4. It will continue to be led by our full-time investing team: Managing Partner Ray Wu and Senior Principals Jack Statza and Sophia Zhao.1

Blockchain & Fintech Fund 5 Open Now

Our Blockchain & Fintech Fund offers accredited investors a portfolio of ~15-20 startups delivering cutting-edge AI and blockchain infrastructure and services for banking, insurance, supply chains, healthtech, retail, and more. Investor who join by our First Close (10/31/2024) or Second Close (11/30/2024) will earn management fee reductions. The fund’s Final Close is December 31, 2024, and the fund minimum is $25K.

Ray Wu is a seasoned VC with experience investing across a wide range of industries and geographies. Following a decade in the corporate venture space, Wu most recently worked as a partner and adviser at several global venture funds focusing on blockchain and AI investment opportunities across the U.S. and Asia Pacific. According to Wu, “Our Blockchain Fund team is bringing proprietary networks and venture access to the table to enhance AV’s ability to access high-potential blockchain opportunities.”

Meet AV’s Blockchain Fund Investing Team

See video policy below.

Our Blockchain Co-Investors & Portfolio

Blockchain Fund 2 was one of Alumni Ventures’ largest fundraises to date, and we had to establish a waitlist to accommodate interest.2 The fund is managed by Managing Partner Ray Wu and Senior Principals Jack Statza and Sophia Zhao, who have completed over 30 co-investments alongside established VCs and strategic web3 investors:3

The team has adhered to a disciplined investment approach while building Blockchain Fund 2, using a top down approach to identify fast growing markets and a bottom up approach to narrow down the right investment targets.

Blockchain Fund 4 is open through June 30, 2023. Click below to learn more.

Blockchain & Fintech Fund 5 Open Now

Our Blockchain & Fintech Fund offers accredited investors a portfolio of ~15-20 startups delivering cutting-edge AI and blockchain infrastructure and services for banking, insurance, supply chains, healthtech, retail, and more. Investor who join by our First Close (10/31/2024) or Second Close (11/30/2024) will earn management fee reductions. The fund’s Final Close is December 31, 2024, and the fund minimum is $25K.

About the Team

Ray Wu
Ray Wu
Managing Partner, Blockchain Fund

Ray is a seasoned venture capitalist with over 20 years of investing experience across a wide range of industries and geographies. Before joining Alumni Ventures, Ray was a partner and adviser at several global venture funds focusing on investment opportunities across the U.S. and Asia Pacific. Earlier, he spent more than 10 years in the corporate venture space: He worked at HP — where he served as the managing director for the tech giant’s venture arm, responsible for startup technology evaluation, new business incubation, VC relationships, and minority investments — and earlier at Cisco Systems, holding several senior positions leading investment, M&A, internal incubation, and global consulting. Previously, Ray was a managing partner of a leading Internet consulting firm working with Fortune 1000 companies across North America. He earned a dual MBA degree from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University.

Jack Statza
Jack Statza
Senior Principal, Blockchain Fund

Jack brings deep-tech venture investing expertise across sectors and stages to his work at Alumni Ventures. He was previously an early-stage investor at Allstate Strategic Ventures, the venture capital arm of Allstate Insurance Company, primarily focusing on AI/ML, Blockchain, and Enterprise SaaS. Before Allstate, Jack worked in investment banking at Lazard and at Livingstone in Chicago, executing M&A transactions for technology clients. He was also a consultant at the Northern Trust Company, where he gained a deep understanding of the financial markets that blockchain is beginning to disrupt. Jack has been deeply involved in the blockchain space ever since he first mined Bitcoin in 2010 and is a personal crypto investor in many altcoin projects. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he is a CFA charterholder.

Sophia Zhao
Sophia Zhao
Senior Principal, Blockchain Fund

Sophia immersed herself in the world of cryptocurrencies in 2018 and started her crypto journey with Galaxy Digital, supporting its portfolio of blockchain projects on fundraising, investor relations, and ICO initiatives. During her tenure with Huobi US and Crypto.com, she grew the institutional business by working with crypto hedge funds and trading firm clients in market making and volume trading programs, covering the Americas, EU, and Latam region.Sophia is also an active volunteer Judge and Mentor with Ethereum Foundation, Algorand, Harmony and Solana Labs. She’s a mentor with Yale’s Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking, as well as an active participant in startup communities such as Techstars, 500 Startups, and Plug and Play. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, an MBA from University of British Columbia, and an MAM from Yale School of Management.

1Blockchain Fund 2 was managed by AV with investment team led by Ray Wu. Blockchain Fund 3 was managed by AV with investment team led by Edward Tsai. Going forward, odd number funds will be managed by Edward Tsai, even by Ray Wu. When Fund Families have more that two investment teams, each team can work collaboratively with each other, but each is responsible for investing its own assets. Blockchain Fund 1 was managed by Green Nonce, which was subsequently spun out such that it and its principals are no longer affiliated with Alumni Ventures.

2For illustration purposes only. These investments are not intended to suggest any level of investment returns; not necessarily indicative of investments invested by any one fund or investor. Many returns in investments result in the loss of capital invested. These investments are not available to future fund investors except potentially in certain follow-on investment options.

3Co-investors listed are for illustration purposes only. These co-investors are some that AV has historically co-invested with and is not a predictor of future co-investors for any given portfolio company. There is no guarantee of who will be the co-investors in any given investment and these investments are not intended to suggest any level of investment returns; not necessarily indicative of investments invested by any one fund or investor. Many returns in investments result in the loss of capital invested.

Contact [email protected] for additional information. To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit av-funds.com/disclosures.

Written by

Alumni Ventures

Alumni Ventures is a network-powered VC firm that helps accredited individuals invest in venture capital.

LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
Tagged with

Follow us

Follow us

Neither Alumni Ventures nor any of its funds are sponsored by, affiliated with, or otherwise endorsed by any university. For further details see our Legal & Privacy Policy.

Video Policy: By consuming this content I acknowledge that I may be considering an investment with AV funds for my own or my client’s account. I agree that information contained herein may not be relied upon or used for any other purpose. Offers to purchase securities are only made through formal offering documents, which describe risks (which are significant), terms, and other important information that must be considered before an investment decision is made. To see Important Disclosure Information, visit: https://av-funds.com/disclosures.

Testimonial/Endorsement Policy: Testimonials/Endorsements were provided by the participants without compensation, but each participant has a relationship with Alumni Ventures (AV) from which they benefit. All views expressed are the individual’s own and do not represent the experience of all AV fund investors or companies in which AV funds invest. Please note that testimonials are no guarantee of future performance or success. Any provider of an endorsement that is affiliated with a portfolio company Alumni Ventures has received investment funding from AV, and may in the future seek and/or receive additional funding from AV. This circumstance constitutes a conflict of interest. Providers of testimonials or endorsements were not chosen at random or according to any objective basis, but rather on the basis of their relationship with AV.

Investor Portal Update Policy: Investor portfolio data is updated once per quarter in the AV Investor Portal.

Alumni Ventures is America’s largest VC firm for individual investors based on the combination of total capital raised, number of investments, and number of investors of leading VC firms as reported by Pitchbook and other publicly available information reviewed by AV.

(1) Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for AV Funds is net of management fees and incentive allocations applied to amounts distributed to investors, and gross of incentive allocations applicable to unrealized gains on investments held by AV Funds. IRR for AV Funds includes uninvested cash, unrealized investments, and amounts distributed to investors. The IRR shown for the Russell 2000 indices are gross of fees because indices are not managed investments, and it is not possible to invest directly in an index. For additional information see av-funds.com/disclosures. All investment involves risk, including risk of loss. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. For more information on AV Funds’ investment returns, please see here.

Not an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Such offers are only made pursuant to the formal offering documents for the fund, that describe the risks (which are significant), terms, and other important information that must be considered before an investment decision is made.
To see additional risk factors and investment considerations, visit: https://av-funds.com/disclosures.

Please click here to view additional investor policies.

© 2024, Alumni Ventures. All rights reserved.