Infinity Ventures Crypto

Founding partners Brian Lu and Akio Tanaka lead investment decisions. Lu previously invested in fintech at Headline Asia and worked at PayPal, while Tanaka ran Headline's Japan office. The two-person partnership structure means sourcing and approval rest with the founders directly, which is typical for a first-time fund of this vintage.

The firm leverages Tanaka's network in Japan's startup ecosystem and Lu's relationships across Greater China and Southeast Asia. Their thesis targets blockchain applications where Asian consumer markets meet global protocols — gaming guilds in the Philippines, NFT infrastructure in Taiwan, and DeFi tooling with Japanese institutional backing. Co-investing alongside Animoca Brands also provides a proprietary origination channel.

The firm primarily invests via equity rounds in early-stage crypto startups with a private-venture structure. Public records do not indicate an active liquid-token treasury strategy. Most positions have been structured as traditional venture equity or SAFE agreements with token rights attached, standard for web3 funds of this profile.

Infinity Ventures Crypto targets seed through early growth, with initial checks typically ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. The Metagood round in February 2023 involved a $12 million seed co-lead, indicating capacity to anchor rounds when the opportunity warrants (per TechCrunch, February 2023).

Founding partners Brian Lu and Akio Tanaka both previously worked at Headline Asia, where Lu was a fintech-focused partner and Tanaka ran the firm's Japanese operations. Infinity Ventures Crypto is a separate fund raised independently, not a spin-out vehicle under the Headline umbrella.

By anchoring itself in Taiwan and Japan — two jurisdictions with defined digital-asset regulatory frameworks — the firm operates in markets that provide clearer compliance paths than the US. Portfolio companies like Chainalysis (per the firm's communications) further reflect an emphasis on infrastructure that supports regulatory monitoring, suggesting a compliance-forward stance.

Lu's experience at PayPal provides payments-architecture expertise that the firm applies to portfolio company token design, though Infinity Ventures Crypto has not publicly described a separate in-house tokenomics function. Hands-on operational support is a stated part of the partnership model, consistent with the lean team structure.