In only a few years, the area between the Swiss cities of Zug and Zurich has established itself as an epicentre of the blockchain industry. Lakeside Partners, a leading startup investor and blockchain advisory company based in Zug, has been in the middle of it, developing its own ecosystem including a co-working space, start-up competitions, industry summits and strong ties to leading Swiss politicians and institutions.
CV VC is a logical continuation of these activities. CV VC AG financed by private investor is an ecosystem builder investing directly and not via a fund into blockchain start-ups. “The time is ripe for CV VC”, says Mathias Ruch, Founder/Managing Partner at Lakeside Partners and Founder/CEO of CV VC: “After the initial phase of pioneers, traditional investors and big players of the ‘old economy’ are starting to take note. Analysts now speak of a new dawn for the industry, with serious companies, serious people and serious money coming into the space.”
CV VC will continue all activities of Lakeside Partners. These include advisory, the coworking space CV Labs, the CV competition (known as Blockchain Competition), the CV Summit and the directory CV Maps. In addition, the CV VC will operate a blockchain incubator.
New blockchain incubatorThe CV Labs incubator offers $125k of seed money for 8% equity and a three-month incubation program to blockchain startups. It is the first incubator that is fully embedded in the unique Crypto Valley ecosystem, focusing 100% on the decentralized technology. The pre-registration for the incubation program starting this winter is open. Every batch is planned to have 20 start-ups and three programs will be run per year.
In addition, CV VC AG will invest CHF4 – 8 million per year in more mature companies. The founders chose to invest via an AG and not with a fund because it gives them more flexibility to invest in token.
The three founders of Lakeside Partners are also the founders of CV VC and will be active in the new company: Mathias Ruch (CEO, Board Member), Marco Bumbacher (Chairman) and Ralf Glabischnig (Board Member). Olaf Hannemann, a corporate finance veteran with 20 years of experience from JPMorgan has joined the management team as CIO. He is also a co-founder.
Renowned investorsCV VC has closed a first financing round in which a group of highly experienced investors joined the team from Lakeside Partners: Daniel Grossen (Scout 24, Grossen Invest AG), Christian Jaag (Swiss Economics, Center for Crypto Economics), Alex Wassmer (Kibag, Club zum Rennweg) and Lorenz Furrer (furrerhugi, Swiss Blockchain Taskforce). “Since I'm an entrepreneur deeply rooted in the old economy, I found CV VC to be the perfect platform to invest in blockchain technology”, says Co-Founder Alex Wassmer.
CV VC’s strategy includes international expansion by deploying CV Labs hubs in various global locations, ultimately leading to multiple specialized hubs. Switzerland as the ‘genesis hub’ will remain the home base, where leading-edge projects benefit from the largest and most advanced blockchain ecosystem and community worldwide.