U.S. rapper Nasir Jones (better known by his stage name, Nas) is amongst the fortunate few to have made opportunities which are very early Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange anticipated to reach over $100 billion in valuation whenever its COIN stock lists on Wednesday.
Jones investment that is, QueensBridge Venture Partners, got into Coinbase’s Series B round back 2013 when it raised $25 million. Around that right time Coinbase had been valued at about $143 million, according to PitchBook.
The Nas news shows just how far coinbase’s listing that is public ripple around the world of venture capital, with everybody from Wall Street veterans to A-list superstars all standing to win big if the chips fall this week.
QueensBridge, that was also a backer of Robinhood in 2013 and soon after Lyft and Dropbox, makes early-stage investments of between $100,000 and $500,000, according to Jones’ QueensBridge co-founder Anthony Saleh.
Dividing the firm’s $100,000–$500,000 stake by the share cost at the time of Coinbase’s Series B ($1.00676) tips to QueensBridge getting around 99,329 stocks in the end that is low 496,642 regarding the high end, in accordance with an analysis by CoinDesk.
During the price that Coinbase shares final exchanged on private areas being secondary $350 per share – Jones’ company could have a pot of approximately $34.76 million and $173.8 million. If Coinbase shares trade at investment bank DA Davidson’s price that is brand new of $440, QueensBridge could start to see the value of its Coinbase stake rise to $43.7 million and $218.5 million, correspondingly.
Saleh and Jones would not get back demands for remark. Coinbase declined to comment.
But a source acquainted with the matter confirmed QueensBridge remains on the Coinbase cap table.
The source added that Jones is really a friend of Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Silicon Valley venture giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of Coinbase’s main backers, and also require told the musician the then-fledgling bitcoin (BTC, -0.13%) change had been a investment that is promising. QueensBridge had raised a $10 million fund in 2012, based on “A-List Angels” author Zack O’Malley Greenburg.
In addition to the startups which can be well-picked backed between 2012 and 2014, Jones and Co. apparently bagged around $40 million in 2018 after Amazon acquired the doorbell company Ring.