NEM Ventures

NEM Ventures is the venture capital and investments arm of the NEM blockchain ecosystem, founded in 2018 and based in Gibraltar. The firm was created following a public community vote that mandated NEM Ventures to manage a pool of reserved funds and deploy them as strategic investments in projects aligned with NEM's ethos — specifically those building on NEM's NIS1 and Symbol blockchain protocols. NEM Ventures was led by Founder and General Partner Kailin O'Donnell and operated with a lean two-person team. The fund concentrated on seed and early-stage companies in the blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech sectors, with a geographic emphasis on New Zealand and Switzerland. Investment criteria prioritised projects with truly differentiated products, founders committed to advancing the blockchain ecosystem, and business models capable of generating positive net income in the medium term. NEM Ventures also ran the NEM Ignite Incubator Programme, a virtual incubator for early-stage companies building on NIS1 or Symbol that launched its first cohort in 2021. The firm made 9 disclosed investments. Notable portfolio companies include Techemy, a holding company for a blockchain and distributed-ledger enterprise ecosystem whose subsidiaries include Brave New Coin, Blockchain Labs, and Sphere Identity; Vimba, a cryptocurrency savings platform; StakeHound, which received a seed investment in January 2021; and SharpShark, a blockchain time-stamping platform for intellectual property protection and tokenisation. NEM Ventures' last disclosed investment was in early 2021, and the fund is now inactive. It remains a notable example of community-governed venture capital deployed to accelerate adoption of a specific blockchain ecosystem.