Kindi Capital Research
Overview
Kindi Capital is a crypto-native venture capital firm founded in 2020. The firm describes itself as comprised of "crypto-native technologists, investing in cutting edge technologies." Its tagline, "Investing in a Decentralized Future," encapsulates its core mission: backing early-stage projects in cryptographic assets, blockchains, and decentralized protocols.
The firm is incorporated in Delaware, United States, with its operational team based in Europe — co-founder Jenna Zenk has strong roots in the Zurich/Swiss blockchain ecosystem via her prior work at Avantgarde Finance and Enzyme Finance, while partner Alexandre Caffarelli is based in Paris, France.
Investment Thesis
Kindi Capital's thesis is centered on the belief that decentralized systems will fundamentally reshape social and economic interactions. The firm targets technologies designed to accelerate that shift — specifically cryptographic assets, blockchain protocols, and decentralized infrastructure. This encompasses:
- Blockchain infrastructure: Staking, validator services, and on-chain asset management
- Decentralized governance: Onchain voting, competition, and community coordination platforms
- DeFi primitives: Protocols that provide financial services without intermediaries
- Web3 developer tooling: Platforms and SDKs that lower the barrier to building on-chain applications
The fund appears deeply technical and founder-driven, with both team members having hands-on engineering backgrounds — Jenna Zenk is a software engineer who built blockchain protocols, and Alexandre Caffarelli completed software engineering training and became a fullstack developer in addition to his finance background.
Stage Focus
Based on known investments, Kindi Capital focuses on seed-stage opportunities:
- Kiln's $5M seed round (May 2022)
- JokeRace's $3M seed round (July 2024)
The fund targets early-stage projects before product-market fit is fully established, consistent with a crypto-native micro-fund model that invests alongside a broad syndicate of other investors.
Check Size
Kindi Capital's check sizes are not publicly disclosed. Given the fund's size, structure (small team), and participation alongside many co-investors (JokeRace had 47+ co-investors), checks are likely in the range of $50K–$500K. This is typical for crypto-native emerging managers operating as part of broader syndicates.
Lead Tendency
Kindi Capital appears to follow rather than lead rounds. The JokeRace investment included 47 co-investors with Kindi listed as one of many participants. No evidence of lead positions was found in public sources.
Portfolio Companies
Kiln (kiln.fi)
Kiln is an institutional staking-as-a-service platform that allows enterprises, crypto-native companies, and fintech firms to stake Ethereum and other Proof-of-Stake assets. Kindi Capital participated in Kiln's $5M seed round in May 2022. Kiln subsequently raised a $17.6M Series A with investors including Consensys, GSR, and Kraken Ventures. Notably, Alexandre Caffarelli (Kindi Capital partner) has also held a Finance Operations role at Kiln, suggesting a close operational relationship.
JokeRace (jokerace.io)
JokeRace is an onchain competition platform used by leading Web3 communities including Polygon, Farcaster, and Bankless. The platform enables decentralized communities to host and participate in contests leveraging blockchain for transparency and fairness. Kindi Capital participated in JokeRace's $3M seed round in July 2024 alongside 47 co-investors including 1kx, Maven 11 Capital, Komorebi Ventures, and angel investors such as Emad Mostaque.
Team
Jenna Zenk — Co-Founder
Jenna Zenk is a software engineer and blockchain entrepreneur with deep roots in DeFi infrastructure. She was a co-founder and CTO of Avantgarde Finance, the core development team behind the Enzyme Finance protocol (formerly known as Melon), one of Ethereum's earliest on-chain asset management protocols. She was directly responsible for Enzyme's v1.0 launch in 2019 and helped build out its governance system and token economics. Previously, she worked in the hedge fund industry in Paris and New York before pivoting to blockchain engineering. She completed fullstack JavaScript training at Fullstack Academy in New York. Her background bridges traditional institutional asset management with cutting-edge DeFi protocol development.
Alexandre Caffarelli — Partner
Alexandre Caffarelli brings a combination of traditional finance and blockchain engineering expertise. He has a Master's degree in Finance from Université Paris Dauphine - PSL and previously worked as a corporate finance analyst at Natixis, a commodities analyst at Société Générale, and a trade finance specialist at Bank ABC. In 2020, he retrained as a fullstack JavaScript developer through Ecole O'Clock, positioning himself at the intersection of finance and technology. He also holds a Finance Operations role at Kiln, the staking infrastructure company in Kindi Capital's portfolio.
Geographic Focus
Kindi Capital invests globally with no explicit geographic restrictions, consistent with the borderless nature of Web3 and cryptocurrency. The team's European base (Switzerland, Paris) suggests a natural affinity for European blockchain projects, but portfolio companies (Kiln is French-origin, JokeRace is US-based) indicate genuinely global coverage.
Fund Status
Kindi Capital has made limited publicly disclosed investments — 2 known investments over a 4-year period (2020–2024). This suggests either a highly selective strategy with many undisclosed investments (common in crypto token deals which don't require public disclosure), or a fund that is between deployment cycles. The most recent known investment (JokeRace, July 2024) indicates the fund remains active.
Decision Process
With a small two-person team (co-founder + one partner), Kindi Capital likely operates as a solo GP or small partnership model where investment decisions are made quickly by the founding team. The crypto-native structure typically implies faster decisions than traditional VC.
Founder Preferences
Based on the portfolio, Kindi Capital backs technical founders building blockchain infrastructure and tooling for decentralized communities. They show a preference for crypto-native teams building protocols and platforms that provide real utility to the Web3 ecosystem — staking infrastructure (Kiln) and onchain governance tooling (JokeRace) are both mission-critical blockchain primitives rather than consumer-facing applications.