Intersection Growth Partners Research
Investment Thesis
Intersection Growth Partners (operating investment capital through its "Intersection Crypto Ventures" / "Intersection Fintech Ventures" platform) is built around an unusual dual mandate: it is first and foremost the leading executive search firm for crypto and frontier fintech, and it deploys its own capital into the same companies it recruits for, in order to align incentives. Its stated thesis is that two forces are reshaping finance -- blockchains and machine intelligence. Financial infrastructure is migrating onchain, tokenization is bringing real-world assets onto programmable rails, stablecoins are becoming settlement infrastructure, and AI agents are beginning to conduct transactions autonomously. The firm believes the category-defining companies of this era will be "part AI-first tech company, part financial institution," and require operators who understand crypto, AI, and traditional finance simultaneously.
Business Model
This is not a conventional venture fund. Intersection began as a retained executive search firm (founded 2018-2019 by Scott Fletcher, Hugh Norton-Smith, and reportedly Elizabeth Anderson) and, starting in 2019, began converting search economics into equity by investing alongside the leadership searches it runs -- a model founder Scott Fletcher has described as solving venture's core problem of deal access. The investing arm (branded Intersection Crypto Ventures, with an earlier vehicle called Intersection Fintech Ventures I, a 2021-vintage fund) had raised roughly $100M as of its October 2022 relaunch as ICV II, when stablecoin/financial-markets veteran David Puth (former CEO of the Centre Consortium, which oversaw USDC) joined as Co-Managing Partner alongside Fletcher to run sourcing, evaluation, execution, and management of investments.
Stage Focus
Intersection explicitly targets growth-stage companies and established institutions rather than early-stage startups -- consistent with its confirmed deals: Circle's ~$470M pre-IPO round (2021) and Superstate's $82.5M Series B (announced January 2026). Treat this firm as a growth/late-stage participant, not a seed investor, despite what any prior auto-generated profile fields may have implied.
Check Size / Lead Tendency
No disclosed typical check size; investments appear to be smaller, alignment-oriented stakes riding inside larger syndicated rounds rather than firm-led priced rounds (e.g., Superstate's round was led by Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global, with Intersection listed as a participant). Lead tendency should be treated as unknown/participant rather than lead.
Recent Activity
- January 2026: Participated in Superstate's $82.5M Series B (tokenization / onchain equity issuance), alongside Bain Capital Crypto, Distributed Global, Haun Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Digital, and others.
- October 2022: Launched second fund (ICV II) and added David Puth as Co-Managing Partner.
- 2021: Invested in and helped staff Circle's pre-IPO round (~$470M), placing CFO, chief compliance officer, chief risk officer, chief marketing officer, chief product officer, and head of investor relations.
- Other confirmed capital investments cited across sources: Anchorage Digital, TRM Labs, and Forte.
Portfolio / Client Highlights
Intersection's public "partner" list (a mix of executive-search clients and, in some cases, capital co-investments) includes Coinbase, Circle, BNY, Uniswap, Grayscale, Superstate, Chainlink Labs, Securitize, Digital Asset, Morpho, Ondo, Stellar, Brevan Howard, Skyfire, EDX Markets, PayPal, Ribbit Capital, Polygon, Robot Ventures, OpenZeppelin, Mysten Labs, Jump Crypto, HiddenRoad, FalconX, Electric Capital, Starknet, dYdX, Halborn, CMT Digital, Figure Markets, Equiniti, Blockaid, Aave, Foundation Capital, OKX, Tempo, Wormhole, Alchemy, Anchorage Digital, and Bain Capital Crypto. Only a subset of these represent confirmed equity investments (see Recent Activity); the rest are recruiting relationships and should not be treated as portfolio positions without further verification.
Team
- Scott Fletcher, Partner & Co-Founder - 25+ years in executive search and financial services/fintech; Harvard Business School and University of Pennsylvania; based in Marin County, CA.
- Hugh Norton-Smith, Partner & Co-Founder - 20+ years in financial services recruiting and startups; University of Sydney and Stanford; based in Menlo Park, CA.
- Catherine Muller, Chief Operating Officer - 25+ years in strategy, investing, and operations; Wharton and Dartmouth; based in Marin County, CA.
- Keanan Clark, Partner & Executive Recruiter - 10+ years in fintech recruiting; Princeton; based in Philadelphia.
- Miller Steinle, Principal & Executive Recruiter - 10+ years across investment banking, portfolio management, retained search; Trinity Business School and Middlebury; based in Boston.
- Kali Koehler, Recruiting Coordinator - 15+ years in executive recruiting and financial services; NYU; based in New York City.
David Puth (former Co-Managing Partner of Intersection Crypto Ventures, ex-CEO of the Centre Consortium/USDC) is documented historically (2022) but no longer appears on the current team page, so his current status with the firm is unclear.
Decision Process
Investment decisions run through a small partnership (historically Fletcher and Puth co-managing the investment platform; currently unclear who leads investment decisions day-to-day post-Puth). Treat as partnership-run rather than solo-GP.
Founder / Operator Preferences
Because Intersection is fundamentally a search firm, its "founder preference" is really an operator preference: proven executives and leadership-team hires with backgrounds spanning crypto, AI, and traditional finance/banking, capable of building at financial-institution-grade rigor. Companies it invests in are typically ones for which it is simultaneously building out the executive team.
Geographic Focus
US-headquartered (Bay Area cluster for the founding partners; team also spans Philadelphia, Boston, and NYC) with a client/investment base that is effectively global given the international nature of crypto and fintech infrastructure companies.
Notes for F4-OS Matching
This firm's profile should not be treated like a standard seed/Series A VC fund. It is best understood as a hybrid recruiting-and-capital platform focused on crypto, stablecoins, tokenization, and AI-driven finance, investing opportunistically and at growth stage alongside its search engagements. Prior auto-generated fields describing it as a seed/Series A, $500K-$3M check-size investor appear to be inaccurate and have been corrected here based on primary and secondary sourcing.