PayPal and Visa are chasing bets across the crypto industry as partners in the fifth venture capital fund, Crypto VC Blockchain Capital, which was announced Tuesday.

Companies that are increasingly versed in cryptocurrencies are relative newcomers to cryptocurrency venture capital. While both have invested directly in several crypto startups, joining them as limited partners (LPs) means that an outside manager will place broader equity investments on their behalf. PayPal has confirmed to CoinDesk that this is its first such arrangement with a crypto venture capital firm.

According to General Partner Spencer Bogart, Blockchain Capital is one of the oldest and largest venture capital firms that owns a cryptocurrency that manages over $ 1.5 billion. He said the firm's fifth fund also received support from pension funds and university donations, but declined to name additional LPs.

The payments giants crave bolder investment opportunities in an industry they believe in, but need the help of a field guide to fully navigate, Bogart said.

"There is nothing better than directing an early-stage startup to the likes of Visa or PayPal, helping them enter into a commercial agreement, and helping to make sure they have solutions from Visa and PayPal for the products they want to launch."

Bogart said the LP path provides these firms with indirect capital growth potential as well as an opportunity to learn about startups in advance for partnering deals.

PayPal thinks so too. “Investing in the new Blockchain Capital fund allows us to interact and learn from entrepreneurs who are shaping the future of digital currencies and blockchains,” Crypto Leader of PayPal, Jose Fernández da Ponte, said in a statement.

Blockchain Capital aims to toss $ 300 million into early stage gems - “these are not quite the world's coin and kraken bases yet,” Bogart said. He started investing more than 12 months ago, but most of his new fund is pending. (Coinbase, Kraken, Anchorage, and OpenSea are previous investments in Blockchain Capital.)

The new fund remains focused on crypto-infrastructure games, such as building startups to support decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT), while avoiding the assets themselves, Bogart said.

The fourth fund, Blockchain Capital, announced in March 2018, totaled $ 150 million.