Crypto VCs Meet DPAD’s YCombinator Projects: 7 Checklist for Investments by JFK Capital and Animal Concerts

3 min readFeb 16, 2023

This is a very important writeup from a series of DPAD’s YCombinator sessions where 11 projects are currently in incubation. The presentation was delivered by Peter Tsang, the Director of Investments at JFK Capital and Animal Concerts. According to him, successful projects in the crypto space don’t emerge out of anywhere. They receive funding from firms and institutional investors that believe in the projects’ propositions and solutions to the problems. Venture capital (VC) refers to a form of private equity investment that is made into companies that are at an early stage of development and have high growth potential. Crypto VCs are typical Web3 institutional investors who pool their resources together to provide funding to these companies in the crypto space. The main objective is to help crypto startups grow and become successful.

What Most VCs Look Out For When Funding Crypto Projects?

VCs look at several critical factors before funding a promising crypto project. These 7 factors are critically evaluated to determine the potential success of the crypto project, according to Peter Tsang.

Problems
Solutions
Market Opportunity
Roadmap
Business Model
Tokenomics
Team.

Let’s expand on the points above.

Problems

Problems in the crypto space remain a focal factor for investment for VCs. Institutional and private investors look at the problems in the industry and examine how the project can address the issues.

Solutions

VCs look out for early projects with a clear and unique value proposition. They will want to see that the project offers unique solutions that sets it apart from other projects floating the market. VCs will want to see that the project solves the problem or users’ needs in the crypto space.

Market Opportunities

VCs pay more attention to projects that have unique market opportunities. They are attracted to projects that have innovative and disruptive technology that can create a new market or solve a significant problem. VCs will examine the potential for the technology or project to scale.

Roadmap

A roadmap includes a set of plans, financial projections, and milestones of a project. A roadmap tells if the crypto project has potential for growth. VCs look at the project’s roadmap before funding.

Business Model

VCs look at projects with a sustainable business model that can generate revenue in the long run and grow exponentially. They will evaluate the model, check for evidence of revenue generation, and see if the project has a clear market strategy and potential for future growth.

Tokenomics

Like a roadmap, a project with good tokenomics will lead to a strong and engaged community of users and facilitate adoption. VCs will also look at tokenomics of the project and see evidence for growth potential.

Team

Behind every successful project is an experienced and dedicated team. Venture capitalists look for a strong and experienced team with a proven track record in the crypto industry. They also look for a team with diverse skills and expertise, as they believe that they will best guarantee the success of the project.

While looking at the critical factors, VCs will also check if the project is regulatory compliant. With countries tightening their regulatory requirements for crypto, VCs will look at the project to see if it has a clear understanding of the regulatory space and abides by relevant laws and regulations.

Conclusion

VCs don’t just invest in emerging crypto projects. They look for projects with strong potential for growth, innovation, and market impact, as well as a solid team and business model to support that growth.

About DPAD Finance

DPAD Finance is the first of its kind in the Web3 industry- unifying the total fundraising process for startups in crypto after the incubation process has been completed. In other words, DPAD’s YCombinator is Web3’s foremost “Incubation + Launchpad pair” whereby the Launchpad is data-driven and transparent in all dimensions. We are open to support from different blockchain protocols and foundations with mutual terms and benefits to derive. Communications from VCs and blockchain foundations should be forwarded to relations@dpad.finance. So, join this voyage and explore.

DPAD’s YCombinator Agenda