The Fenbushi Ecosystem Fund for Filecoin Development

The following is a summary of a talk given by Roland Sun at the Storage Market Summit on December 11, 2020. Roland Sun is a partner at Fenbushi Capital. Entire talk available here.

In collaboration with Protocol Labs, Fenbushi Capital has announced a $15+ million USD investment fund in the IPFS and Filecoin ecosystem. The mission of the fund is to drive the growth of the IPFS and Filecoin ecosystems.

Details of the Fund

Fenbushi is planning to raise $15-20 million USD and has committed to raising and deploying all capital in FIL rather than in stablecoins or other crypto assets. Fenbushi has committed $1 million USD to the fund alongside other limited partners.

Fenbushi anticipates three primary sources for locating target investment deals.

1. Slingshot Program. The Slingshot Program initiated by Protocol Labs is anticipated to provide a strong pipeline for potential investments. Phase 1 of Slingshot has concluded, and more than 100 projects submitted applications.
2. LongHash Filecoin Frontier Accelerator. Singapore-based LongHash Ventures recently announced their 12-week Filecoin Frontier Accelerator. Fenbushi and LongHash have worked closely over the past few years, and the 150+ applications to the Accelerator are anticipated to yield potential investment deals for the Fenbushi Ecosystem Fund.
3. The Chinese community. The Chinese community is not just interested in mining FIL. There are many teams in China developing applications with IPFS and Filecoin. We have seen prototypes from some of these teams, and expect the deal opportunities to grow.

Fenbushi Capital will be responsible for all aspects of financial management relating to the Fenbushi Ecosystem Fund and Protocol Labs will undertake a technical advisory role. The fund has a 2% per annum management fee and charges 20% interest while the terms are 5 years. Investment from Fenbushi will include both token and equity investments worldwide and the fund will not be limited to any specific jurisdictions.

Background of the Fund

In 2017, Fenbushi invested a significant amount in Filecoin during its public sale. Since then, Fenbushi has been helping Chinese miners deploy their mining capabilities by providing them with FIL to stake. Fenbushi also served as an early investor in Ethereum. Having watched the growth of Ethereum over the last five years, Fenbushi aims to similarly participate in the building of the Filecoin ecosystem through the Ecosystem Fund.

An interesting fact is that Filecoin is more famous and popular than bitcoin in “tier 3” and “tier 4” cities in China. Distributed storage system technology is an established trend, not just a fad. Many significant companies have begun to embrace the IPFS ecosystem in their data storage business.

Fenbushi aims to close the fund by early February and launch in March 2021. Stay tuned for more updates.

Storage Market Summit wrapped up on December 11, 2020. Watch the full recording on YouTube.

Disclaimers:

• Nothing in these presentations is investment advice.
• Any models shown in presentations are based on many assumptions, and should not be relied upon as the source of truth. Any estimates should not be relied upon and are for illustrative purposes only. You should build your own models based on the code and the Filecoin spec.