Cadenza

Cadenza Research

Investment Thesis

Cadenza is a global investment platform built by operators, investors, and technologists, describing itself as backing "bold founders building enduring businesses across sectors and stages." The firm combines deep fundamental research with active partnership to help exceptional teams scale from early conviction to long-term market leadership. Cadenza's tagline — "Global Investors in Transformative Technologies" — captures their stage-agnostic, thesis-driven approach focused on category-defining opportunities across technology, business services, and innovation-led industries.

Historically focused on crypto and blockchain, Cadenza has pivoted its most recent fund (Fund III, December 2024) squarely toward early-stage artificial intelligence, particularly AI infrastructure, open-source LLMs, and AI-native applications. The firm maintains strong conviction in decentralized technologies, and many of their AI portfolio companies sit at the intersection of AI and open-source/permissionless computing.

Funds

• Fund I: Undisclosed size (~2018), crypto/blockchain focus
• Fund II: $50M (November 2021), crypto/DeFi/blockchain focus; anchored by VanEck (Jan van Eck, who became a GP)
• Fund III: $50M (December 2024), early-stage AI focus; pre-seed and seed; LPs include Solana Foundation and TRON

Total disclosed AUM: ~$100M across Funds II and III.

Sector Focus

Cadenza's portfolio spans two primary themes:

AI & ML (Fund III primary):

• AI inference infrastructure (Together.ai, Tensorwave)
• Open-source LLM research (Nous Research, Axolotl)
• AI-powered cybersecurity (Jericho Security)
• AI speech/audio (Rime Labs)
• AI search (Kagi)
• AI fine-tuning infrastructure (Pangram Labs, Dexmate)

Crypto/Blockchain/DeFi (Funds I-II):

• Crypto exchanges (CoinDCX, VALR, Kraken, Busha)
• DeFi protocols (Ostium, Ribbon, ZBD)
• Crypto prime brokerage (FalconX)
• Crypto payments/cards (Rain, Lemon)
• Blockchain analytics (Token Terminal)

Stage Focus

Fund III is explicitly focused on pre-seed and seed stage AI companies. Cadenza describes itself as "stage agnostic" for the broader platform, but Fund III narrows to early-stage conviction plays. They co-invested at pre-seed in Together.ai — now described as "one of the fastest-growing companies of all time."

Check Size

Not explicitly disclosed on their website. Given Fund III's $50M size and a typical 20-25 company portfolio at pre-seed/seed, estimated check sizes are:

• Pre-seed: ~$250K–$500K
• Seed: ~$1M–$2.5M

Lead Tendency

Cadenza has demonstrated capacity and willingness to lead rounds, as evidenced by their early conviction in Together.ai (co-led at pre-seed). They appear to be active, high-conviction investors rather than passive participants.

Geographic Focus

Cadenza is headquartered in New York (777 Third Avenue) and San Francisco (601 California St), with a stated "global" investment mandate. Their portfolio includes companies from India (CoinDCX), South Africa (VALR), Nigeria (Busha), and Brazil (Lemon), affirming their international reach. Fund II LP include global institutions like the Solana Foundation and TRON.

Team

Managing Partners (Co-founders):

• Kumar Dandapani — Former Head of Data Science at Norwest Venture Partners; co-founded BitMEX Ventures; quant and derivatives trader background (Carnegie Mellon, UPenn)
• Max Shapiro — Former Investment Principal at BitMEX Ventures; leveraged buyout background at Blue Line Advisors; Deloitte financial consultant; CFA + CPA (Binghamton)

Operating / Investment Staff:

• Harris Wellner (Operating Partner) — Former VP at Angelo Gordon ($2B+ real estate portfolio); CPA
• Eric Meltzer (Principal) — Managed $60M+ in digital assets at a US family office; 6 years at BlackRock Aladdin; FalconX institutional sales
• Kelly Yip (EIR) — Former Summer Analyst at Greycroft; interned at Enlight Growth Partners (Wharton)
• Andrew Liu (Associate) — Former Analyst at Cambridge Associates; TMT banking at Wedbush; NASA JPL intern (UCLA EE)
• Richarde Li (Associate) — Equity Research Analyst at Conduit Capital; computational data science focus (U of Sydney)

Venture Partners:

• Alex Acero — 2025 NAE member; former Siri Chief Scientist (Apple); 20 years at Microsoft Research; IEEE Fellow
• Vipul Ved Prakash — Founded Cloudmark (acq. Proofpoint) and Topsy (acq. Apple 2013); launched Together.ai
• Tim Tickel — 20+ years security at Google, Facebook, Uber, Reddit, Plaid, BitMEX
• Christopher Biettchert — Security at Google, Facebook, Square, NSA, Aurora Innovation
• Pedro Moreno Mengibar — Chief AI Researcher at HUMAIN; former Senior Research Director at Google; IEEE Fellow; CMU PhD

GP (Fund III anchor LP):

• Jan van Eck — CEO of VanEck ($132B AUM); anchored Fund III and joined as GP

Portfolio Highlights

AI (Fund III):

• Together.ai — Cloud platform for open-source AI models; described as "one of the fastest-growing companies of all time"; backed at pre-seed
• Tensorwave — AI compute infrastructure
• Nous Research — Open-source LLM research lab
• Jericho Security — AI-powered cybersecurity
• Rime Labs — AI speech/audio
• Kagi — AI-powered search

Crypto/DeFi (Funds I-II):

• FalconX — Leading crypto prime brokerage (still active)
• CoinDCX — India's largest crypto exchange
• VALR — South Africa's leading crypto exchange
• BlockFi — (now defunct)
• Blockfolio/FTX — (now defunct)

Decision Process

Cadenza operates as a partnership with two Managing Partners (Kumar Dandapani and Max Shapiro). Given the fund size and team structure, decisions likely involve both Managing Partners with input from Venture Partners on specific domains.

Founder Preferences

Cadenza values "exceptional founders, long-term trust, and intellectual honesty." They pair founders with support in strategy, product, go-to-market, and hiring, amplified by their global institutional network. Their Venture Partner bench — including AI scientists from Apple/Microsoft, serial acqui-hire founders, and security veterans — suggests they add deep domain value to technical founding teams.

Anti-Thesis / What They Avoid

No explicit anti-thesis stated. Given their AI-first mandate in Fund III and transition away from pure crypto, they appear to be moving toward AI infrastructure and applications, and may be more selective on pure crypto/DeFi deals going forward.