Building blockchain infrastructure, one startup at a time: Meet Venture Partner, Anand Iyer.

We are on the cusp of another dramatic paradigm shift. The decentralized, blockchain-driven web will change how we interact and conduct business in ways we haven’t imagined yet.

But the foundations of web3 have only just begun to be poured; the infrastructure is still in its relative infancy. There is more work to be done, and there are more innovative companies to support in their mission to ensure a robust blockchain ecosystem.

Which is one of the reasons why I’m so pleased to introduce our newest Venture Partner, Anand Iyer.

As a managing general partner at Canonical Crypto, as well as in his previous post as visiting partner with Pear VC, Anand demonstrated an intuitive understanding of blockchain and crypto infrastructure. As an angel investor, he and his wife Shreya also invested in Stacks, TrustToken, POAP, Syndica and BetDEX, among other crypto startups. He’s currently teaching online masterclasses in DeFi.

Doubling down on crypto

In other words, Anand is perfectly positioned to help Lightspeed build on its growing portfolio of crypto-enterprise startups, which includes Solana, Offchain Labs, Alchemy, Mysten Labs and FTX. Over the last nine years we’ve selectively invested more than $1.5 billion in the Fintech ecosystem, $600M of that for blockchain, and we’re really just getting started.

Anand joins over 10 investors at Lightspeed already investing across Web3 and blockchain including myself, Justin Overdorff, Mercedes Bent, Shan Shan, Connor Love and now Anand. Additionally, Lightspeed Faction, an independent team of crypto-native investors looking to drive transformation in the blockchain ecosystem, was unveiled just last week.

By working collaboratively together through a joint venture to share one another’s knowledge, experience and networks, investors at both Lightspeed and Faction can best support early-stage founders and blockchain infrastructure projects and help change how businesses operate across Fintech, Consumer, Enterprise, Healthcare, and other key verticals.

Anand plans to focus his attention on companies building infrastructure to help make Web3/crypto developers more productive. His key areas of interest include developer tools, identity management, security, messaging solutions, scalability, data infrastructure, MEV infrastructure, and analytics platforms, among others.

An operator and an investor

We’ve crossed paths many times with Anand over the years and gotten to know him well. In addition to his deep subject matter expertise, we have always been impressed by his personal journey. He understands the founder’s point of view because he was one himself, having launched Trusted, a child care marketplace, in 2015, as well as OnSports, a crowd-powered content channel, in 2011. Both enjoyed successful exits.

As Anand told us, he’s always considered himself a builder and operator. He never envisioned being on the opposite side of the table during pitch meetings. Now he’s eager to explore emerging ideas and partner with new founders to help them realize their vision.

He understands that we are at a unique point in time to help builders create the next wave of generational infrastructure, as well as the crucial role investors can play. We welcome Anand to our Lightspeed family and look forward to his help in shaping and supporting this exciting new paradigm.

Faction Ventures, LLC (“Faction”) and Lightspeed Management Company, L.L.C. (“Lightspeed”) are separate businesses that operate independently of each other. Faction is a registered investment adviser under the United States Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. Faction advises its own fund(s) and does not advise any Lightspeed clients, and Lightspeed does not advise Faction or any of its clients. Lightspeed and Faction are parties to an agreement pursuant to which Lightspeed holds certain interests in Faction and the fund(s) Faction manages.