Luno announces new investment arm

Luno announced today the launch of Luno Expeditions, an early-stage investment group that will support fintech and crypto/web3 startups around the world.

Luno is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG). It is the world's leading cryptocurrency firm on a mission to transform the world's financial system. Luno, which is headquartered in London and has regional centers in Lagos, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, today employs over 600 people.

Luno's products and services, which have over nine million consumers (wallets) spread across more than 40 countries, make it secure and simple to buy, store, and learn about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. In September 2020, Luno was bought by DCG, the world's largest blockchain investor.

The fund will use DCG's seven-year experience of investing in DeFi, Web3 and crypto startups. The move comes as plans to extend investments to reach more early-stage businesses at both the pre-seed and seed stages.

Leveraging this investment move will also necessitate a 'localized' approach, especially in a highly competitive environment. Luno Expeditions believes it can leverage Luno's market expertise to assist founders across all the countries where it operates.

Luno Expeditions, which has no set size, intends to fund between 200 and 300 startups per year and to expand beyond crypto into other aspects of fintech. 

CEO Jocelyn Cheng will oversee an all-female team of five on this new endeavor. She has spent the previous 6 years as the managing director of Global Innovation Fund, a global investment VC, investing in startup founders.

“I am thrilled to join Luno Expeditions as Chief Executive. These are incredibly exciting times in cryptocurrency and the broader fintech ecosystem. We’ve got ambitious plans to build a leading fund designed around the needs of early-stage founders. It will be a privilege to work with ambitious entrepreneurs from all over the world, all intent on solving problems and building the next generation of financial service companies.”

Cheng's prior position required her to work directly with companies in Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, which she will bring to LunoExpeditions even as the firm expands its focus on founders worldwide. She has also worked as an investor at CPP Investments, Bain Capital, and Goldman Sachs.

The Investment Committee of Luno Expeditions will include Barry Silbert, founder, and CEO of DCG, and Marcus Swanepoel, co-founder, and CEO of Luno.

Retail customers' demand for cryptocurrency continues to grow, as do crypto investors looking into web3, and decentralized initiatives. Firms like Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz launched massive funds this year — Paradigm at $2.2 billion and a16z at $3 billion — to primarily finance businesses delivering solutions in the emerging field. There are other funds launched in the recent three months by Hack VC, Electric Capital, Crypto.com, and Inflection.

“There are very few truly global and very early-stage fintech funds in the world; we see an exciting opportunity here to build one. The reason why it’s not just pure crypto is that over the past few years, as operators scaling some of the largest crypto businesses in the world, we have noticed that there is such a strong intersection between some of the traditional fintech and crypto,” said Cheng.