Waterdrip Capital

Jademont Zheng founded the firm in 2017 and leads the investment committee. Waterdrip operates with a distributed team of partners who originate and manage deals across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Day-to-day investment decisions flow through Zheng and senior sector leads aligned with each fund vehicle.

The firm maintains a dual-channel sourcing model that combines Asian high-net-worth networks with Western crypto-native founder relationships. Its early commitment to the Bitcoin Lightning and sidechain communities gave it access to developer teams that larger generalist funds only began courting after the Ordinals inflection in 2023. Waterdrip also anchors ecosystem funds — notably its dedicated Bitcoin vehicle — that attract co-investment from developers themselves.

As of late 2024, Waterdrip operates four fund vehicles: an early-stage venture fund, a Bitcoin ecosystem-specific fund, a liquid token fund, and an index product. The multi-vehicle structure allows the firm to capture protocol-stage upside from seed equity while separately managing liquid exposure and thematic concentration on Bitcoin-native infrastructure (per public record, 2023–2024).

Waterdrip has publicly concentrated its capital on infrastructure-layer protocols and decentralized applications, avoiding exposure to centralized exchange equity, NFT marketplaces, and gaming-only tokens. The firm has not announced positions in AI-training infrastructure or decentralized physical infrastructure networks, which suggests those categories fall outside its current thematic mandate — though the Bitcoin ecosystem fund could overlap with emerging compute layer projects.

Waterdrip operates out of Shanghai but invests primarily through offshore fund structures that accept capital from qualified Asian family offices and international institutions. The firm's 2017 launch year coincides with China's ICO ban, and its subsequent structuring reflects a model common among Chinese crypto-native managers: domestic origination, offshore legal vehicles, and non-Chinese SPV domiciles for token investments.

Yes. The firm's September 2023 Bitcoin ecosystem fund close included a Middle Eastern sovereign-linked LP, and Waterdrip has historically participated in syndicated rounds with other Asia-Pacific blockchain specialists. Its co-investment posture is most active for seed and Series A equity rounds where Asian capital provides a geographic diversification anchor for Western-centric developer teams (per public record).

Waterdrip's LP base draws primarily from Asian family offices and high-net-worth individuals, supplemented since 2023 by Middle Eastern institutional capital. This composition contrasts with Silicon Valley crypto funds that rely heavily on university endowments, US pension consulting gatekeepers, and tech-founder recycled wealth. The difference shapes Waterdrip's longer lock-up tolerance and thematic conviction — Asian LPs often maintain multi-cycle commitment horizons for infrastructure bets.