Chicago venture capital firm Jump Capital raises $350 million venture fund

The new fund will help Jump push further into cryptocurrency investing, in addition to commerce, media and financial technologies. “There’s potentially a generational opportunity in the crypto space,” says Sach Chitnis, who launched the fund with Mike McMahon. “We want to make sure we have the resources.”

The company has made dozens of crypto investments, including BitGo, a San Francisco-based company that is being acquired for $1.2 billion. “Although we’ll make a more concerted move toward crypto, the majority of the new fund will be the same,” Chitnis said.

At $350 million, the new fund will be among the largest raised by a Chicago venture capital firm. It’s one of several new funds raised recently, including S2G Ventures, which raised a $550 million fund, and Lightbank, which closed a $180 million follow-up fund.

Jump traditionally has focused on investments of $2 million to $10 million.

“It’s great to have them in the market deploying capital,” said Ira Weiss, a partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners, which has invested in deals with Jump. “They’ve been very successful. They have a team that can roll up its sleeves and really help.”

Among Jump’s Chicago investments are M1 Finance, which recently was valued at more than $1 billion, Narrative Science and LogicGate. The firm also backed Chicago-based Fast Radius, a maker of 3D-printing technology, which says it’s going public in a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.