Fabric Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Fabric Ventures (formerly Firestartr) is a thesis-driven venture firm founded by technologists who helped build early internet infrastructure, including switching and routing "fabrics" during the 1990s internet build-out. Since 2012 the firm has backed founders from pre-seed to growth, and since 2017 it has run a dedicated "Open Economy" thesis structured around both equity and token investing. The current framing is "Venture Capital for the Machine Economy" — backing AI-first services, autonomous agents, and the crypto/Web3 rails (payments, stablecoins, distributed compute) that will support them. Fabric was one of the first crypto-native VCs to receive backing from a major European public institution, securing a $30M commitment from the European Investment Fund (EIF) toward a $120M digital-assets fund in 2021, part of a roughly $245M two-fund raise completed in 2022.
Sector Focus
Fabric invests across Web3/crypto, fintech and payments infrastructure, gaming, developer tooling/distributed computing, robotics, and increasingly AI and autonomous-agent tooling (the "Machine Economy"). Historic strength is in DeFi protocols, exchanges, stablecoins, and blockchain infrastructure, with a growing tilt toward AI-native and agentic products.
Stage Focus
Fabric invests from pre-seed through Series A, with selective growth-stage participation and follow-ons in existing portfolio companies. Third-party fund trackers describe the firm as not typically a lead investor, more often co-investing or following alongside specialist lead funds, though the firm has led or co-led some seed rounds directly (e.g. Kulipa's pre-seed).
Check Size
No public check-size range is disclosed. Recent disclosed rounds Fabric has participated in span from sub-$1M angel checks (Robin Markets) to multi-million-dollar seed rounds (Kulipa, Superfluid), consistent with a pre-seed-to-Series-A focus.
Lead Tendency
Fabric is generally a participant/co-investor rather than a lead, per third-party fund databases ("Can they lead? No"), though it has co-led select seed rounds (Kulipa, alongside White Star Capital).
Recent Activity
Fabric has been actively deploying through 2026: Mio (Paris-based AI Slack teammate) pre-seed, July 2026; Kulipa (stablecoin-native card issuing infrastructure) seed, April 2026, co-led with White Star Capital; and Robin Markets, an angel round in April 2026. The firm also co-launched R[3]sidency × Construct, a 12-week, $300K-per-team accelerator for Solana-ecosystem "Machine Economy" founders, backed by Wintermute, the Solana Foundation, Superteam UK and Coinbase, running cohorts in London with demo days in London and NYC.
Portfolio Highlights
Fabric's site lists 156+ live portfolio companies (196 backed historically) across Robotics, AI, Fintech, Distributed Computing and Web3. Per the firm's own results page, the partnership has backed 1 centicorn, 3 decacorns and 10 unicorns, six from inception, including Wise (TransferWise), MetaMask, Monzo, Revolut, Near Protocol, Polkadot, Sorare, Kraken and Coinbase (both via acquisition), Immutable and 1inch. Other notable names in the current portfolio include Centrifuge, Aurora, ConsenSys, Alliance (Web3 accelerator), Cartridge, Blockpit, BlackPool, Bloom, Angle Protocol, Flowdesk and Superfluid.
Team
- Richard Muirhead — Managing Partner; co-founded Firestartr in 2012, earlier Accel Europe EIR
- Anil Hansjee — General Partner; co-founder, previously co-founded PayPal Ventures Europe
- Max Mersch — Venture Partner; drove the firm's pivot into digital assets/blockchain under the Fabric brand
- Christina Frankopan — Venture Partner; long-tenured partner since the Firestartr/Fabric origin
- Camilla McFarland — Venture Partner
- Julien Thevenard — Principal
- Lata Persson — Research Associate & R[3]sidency Lead
- Thomas Crow — Senior Research Associate
- Eleanor Hudson — Operating Partner
- Michael Jackson — Senior Director & Partner
The wider team totals roughly 15 people across research/investment, portfolio services, finance/compliance and technology functions, plus a bench of advisors including Julien Bouteloup and Luis Cuende.
Decision Process
Multi-partner structure (Managing Partner, General Partner and several Venture Partners plus a Principal) suggests a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo-GP model.
Founder Preferences
Fabric favors technical founders building core Web3/crypto infrastructure, payments rails and, increasingly, AI-native/agentic products, backing many companies from inception. The firm's own team is technologist-led (early internet infrastructure builders) rather than traditional financiers.
Geographic Focus
Fabric operates from offices in New York, London, Luxembourg and Dubai, and invests globally with a historical bias toward Europe and the US, plus growing coverage of Asia-Pacific and Africa via its portfolio and accelerator programs.