CoinFund Hires Leading Transactional Attorney Dilveer Vahali as Head of Venture Legal

Experienced Attorney to Drive CoinFund's Legal Deal Strategy and Execution

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today CoinFund, a leading web3 investment firm, announces the appointment of experienced transactional attorney Dilveer Vahali as Head of Venture Legal. In his new role, Dilveer will drive CoinFund’s legal deal strategy and execution, and serve as a resource to CoinFund’s nearly 90 active web3 venture investments. Dilveer brings extensive experience working on bespoke and complex corporate transactions which he will leverage in his new role at CoinFund as a seasoned advisor.

Dilveer joins CoinFund with a decade of experience advising on M&A, venture capital investments and other transactional law matters. Most recently, Dilveer was the General Manager and Lead Counsel at TCG Crypto where he acted as the general counsel and COO of the crypto fund, leading deal execution, strategy and operations. He initially joined The Chernin Group (TCG) as Deputy General Counsel where he led deal execution for the TCG funds at large and worked on fund and portfolio company legal matters. Prior to joining TCG, Dilveer was a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in the corporate group, where his practice was focused on mergers & acquisitions, private equity and corporate governance. He began his career in investment banking as a financial analyst in Citigroup’s Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions group.

Co-founded in 2015 by Jake Brukhman and Alex Felix, CoinFund is one of the world’s first cryptonative investment firms: now a registered investment adviser and world class interdisciplinary global team of nearly 30 people, with more than 100 investments across six investment vehicles spanning all aspects of web3, including artificial intelligence, protocols, gaming and NFTs. The firm recently announced the close of $158M Seed IV Fund in July 2023, on the heels of $320M early-stage web3 venture fund CoinFund Ventures I in August 2022, to increase its scope beyond its $83 million seed stage fund Seed III announced in July 2021. The formidable CoinFund investment team deploying this capital is led by Managing Partners Jake Brukhman (focus areas currently include decentralization technologies and infrastructure, AI x web3); Alex Felix (marketplaces, infrastructure, financial services); Seth Ginns (cross-vertical liquid investing); David Pakman (NFTs, consumer, infrastructure) and Chris Perkins (financial convergence, tokenization, CeFi.) The Investment team includes Vangelis Andrikopolous, Austin Barack, Einar Braathen, Evan Feng, Christian Murray, Rishin Sharma and Isaiah Washington. Areas of expertise include ZK/ML/AI; DeFi; Layer 2s; consumer services, gaming, NFTs and DAOs; infrastructure including nodes, security, analytics, middleware, interoperability and scalability, and emerging markets.

In just the last two months, CoinFund has announced investments in Cloudburst Technologies’ cyberthreat intelligence for digital currency fraud; ML compute protocol Gensyn; Giza, an AI platform for smart contracts and web3 protocols; Cosmos layer 1 blockchain Neutron; and Robert Leshner’s Superstate, building blockchain-based financial products. Managing Partner and Head of Venture Investments David Pakman led the creation of the new Venture Legal role and related executive search to meet the demands of increased deal flow as well as the firm’s renewed focus on post-investment services and mentorship.

David said, “As CoinFund enters its 9th year, Dilveer’s appointment signifies the continued maturation and sophistication of CoinFund as an organization. In a complex and novel legal environment, Dilveer’s cryptonative expertise and experience will be invaluable to drive deal execution, to build successful relationships with institutional and sophisticated LPs, and as a resource for our portfolio companies for long after their term sheet.”

Dilveer graduated with a BA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University before receiving his MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business and JD from the USC Gould School of Law. He is currently a lecturer in law at USC Gould School of Law and was recognized by Super Lawyers as a ‘Rising Star’ each year from 2018-2021.

Speaking on his appointment, Dilveer said: “I am excited to be joining CoinFund at this critical time. As the industry continues to mature, it is clear that the best investors are leveraging seasoned professionals to apply their knowledge from other industries to provide effective advice in a creative way to crypto and web3. CoinFund’s history and reputation exhibits the successful integration of significant and meaningful experience within a cryptonative ethos and community. I look forward to supporting our investment strategy working closely with Stewart, David, Jake, Alex and the rest of the investment team, and lending my expertise to support CoinFund’s mission to champion the leaders of the new internet.”

Stewart Eichner, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of CoinFund, said: “Adding Dilveer to our team of experienced and result-driven professionals is further demonstration of our commitment to bringing the best talent to web3 generally and to CoinFund specifically. His skills and experience will benefit our investors and portfolio companies alike.”