A new investment firm founded by Joe McCann is targeting to raise $1 billion in capital, joining the likes of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm and Katie Haun's new set of funds in unveiling new billion dollar plus raises over the last year.
McCann — whose career has spanned systematic trading at John Burbank's Passport Capital to strategy at Microsoft — has named the crypto market's latest investment firm Asymmetric.
But McCann is keen on pointing out how his new company is different from the fast-growing list of capital allocators in the crypto market. And if you asked him to describe Asymmetric, he'd likely say "technology company" before he would "investment firm."
"We take a very technological view on crypto," he said in an interview with The Block. "We're a technology company with the mandate of a fund."
McCann, to be sure, is not the only fund manager touting technological chops. a16z Crypto recently launched a fully fledged research lab to tackle some of crypto's thorniest problems, while Paradigm is known for hiring top-tier developers to work alongside its investors.
Still, McCann was a crypto entrepreneur prior to launching Asymmetric, having run NodeSource, which McCann described on a 2019 episode of The Scoop podcast as an open-source "engine powering software development." He also has contributed to the code to Solana's Anchor set of developer tools.
