Delphi Ventures is the investment arm of Delphi Digital, a crypto-native research and venture firm founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York. The firm built its reputation first as an independent research house before expanding into direct venture investing across Layer 1 blockchains, DeFi protocols, and blockchain gaming. With around 40 portfolio companies and a reported retail ROI of 9.33x, Delphi sits in the upper tier of crypto-focused venture funds by both deal volume and early-entry timing.
The firm operates with a distinctive research-first model. Investment theses are developed internally through deep protocol analysis before capital is deployed. This approach gave Delphi early conviction on several projects that later became sector benchmarks. The fund focuses primarily on early-stage deals across the Ethereum ecosystem, Cosmos, and gaming/NFT verticals. Geographic focus is global, with no single-region concentration.
One significant setback was Delphi's exposure to the Terra ecosystem. The firm backed multiple Terra-native projects through Delphi Labs, its co-creation and incubation arm. When LUNA collapsed in May 2022, Delphi suffered material losses and was candid publicly about the impact – a rare degree of transparency in the industry. The firm wrote openly about lessons learned from the Terra failure, which enhanced its credibility even as portfolio value fell sharply that cycle.
Notable investments
- Axie Infinity (AXS) – One of Delphi's highest-profile wins; early backer of the play-to-earn pioneer before its 2021 breakout
- The Graph (GRT) – Indexed blockchain query protocol; Delphi backed the project before its 2020 token launch
- Synthetix (SNX) – DeFi derivatives protocol on Ethereum; early-stage investment
- Osmosis (OSMO) – Leading DEX in the Cosmos ecosystem
- Uniswap (UNI) – Participated in early rounds of the dominant Ethereum DEX
- Terra / LUNA – Notable loss; Delphi backed multiple Terra-native protocols that were wiped out in the May 2022 collapse
- dYdX – Decentralised perpetuals exchange; invested pre-token
Team
Delphi Digital was co-founded by Tom Shaughnessy and Yan Liberman. Shaughnessy serves as a managing partner and has been a frequent speaker at industry events. Piers Kicks leads gaming and metaverse research and investment strategy. Jose Maria Macedo was formerly a partner focused on DeFi but departed to pursue other projects. Public information on the full current partner roster is limited; Delphi does not publish a comprehensive team page with individual bios and backgrounds for all investment staff.
Recent activity
In the 2024–2025 cycle, Delphi increased focus on Cosmos ecosystem infrastructure, AI-adjacent crypto applications, and intent-based trading protocols. The firm also expanded the scope of Delphi Labs, which co-creates protocols alongside external teams rather than only writing checks. Delphi continued publishing free macro and protocol research, maintaining its public profile as one of the more analytically transparent funds in the space. Specific deal announcements from late 2025 through early 2026 are not fully documented in public sources available at time of writing.
Delphi Ventures enters the current market cycle with a track record that includes major wins and at least one high-profile sector blow-up. The Terra losses were a meaningful test of the firm's durability, and continued activity post-2022 suggests the fund weathered the drawdown. For investors or founders evaluating Delphi as a backer, the firm's research output offers an unusually direct window into how the team thinks about protocol value – a differentiator from funds that operate without a public research function. Total AUM has not been publicly disclosed.
