SA entrepreneur Vinny Lingham joins US cryptofund Multicoin Capital as partner

South African entrepreneur Vinny Lingham has joined US cryptofund Multicoin Capital as a general partner. The fund, which invests in blockchain tokens, made the announcement yesterday.

The company said the announcement closely follows the official launch of a planned $100-million fund, and the addition of Brian Smith as Chief Financial Officer in September.

“Vinny Lingham is a South African entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Civic, a global decentralised identity platform that leverages blockchain technology and recently completed a $33-million token sale.

“Lingham is also the co-founder of Silicon Cape, an NGO based in South Africa, and is a prominent investor. He is a regular Shark on Shark Tank South Africa,” Multicoin Capital said.

Vinny Lingham says Civic remains his main priority, but that he’s investing in the Multicoin team to help build a top cryptofund

In a blog post on the announcement, Lingham said the pace of innovation around blockchain technologies is accelerating rapidly.

“Investing responsibly in crypto requires a lot of time, research, and nuance; you need a team of dedicated experts to react to new breakthroughs, keep up with the latest projects, and actively manage your portfolio.

“I realised I wasn’t the only one who needs that team, and that is a large part of what drove me to join Multicoin Capital as General Partner,” he said.

He however said Civic is currently his main priority, adding that he’s investing in the Multicoin team because he believes he can “help Kyle (Samani, managing partner) and Tushar (Jain, also managing partner) build an industry leading cryptofund”.

Samani said the crypto-ecosystem is “starting to go mainstream”. “We’ve reached an inflection point where enough of the right people have discovered what we’re doing; now, the brightest minds in crypto are rallying around Multicoin.

“Our new General Partner and executive are evidence of that. I could not be more proud of what we’ve built or more bullish about our future together,” said Samani.

Multicoin Capital has begun hiring entry-level analysts, expert research associates, developers, and data scientists and expects its first $100-million fund to be fully subscribed by the end of the first quarter next year (2018).