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Key people at MState.
MState was founded in 2017 by Eliot Durbin (Co-Founder) and Ed Sim (Co-Founder).
MState operates as a growth laboratory dedicated to fostering the development and scaling of enterprise blockchain companies. It provides strategic investment and operational guidance to promising startups, accelerating their market readiness and enabling integration with large corporate clients. The firm focuses on supporting companies poised to deliver foundational blockchain solutions tailored for complex enterprise environments, emphasizing practical application and commercial viability over speculative technology.
The company was co-founded by Robert MacMillan and Ed Sim, a General Partner at Boldstart Ventures, with its public launch occurring in early 2018. Their founding insight stemmed from the perceived gap between nascent blockchain innovation and its practical adoption within established enterprises. Leveraging their extensive experience in technology ventures, MacMillan and Sim established MState to bridge this divide, creating a structured pathway for blockchain technologies to move from conceptual stages to impactful commercial deployment.
MState primarily serves early-stage enterprise blockchain companies, guiding them through critical development phases to ultimately connect them with Fortune 500 customers. Its long-term vision centers on cultivating a robust ecosystem where distributed ledger technologies can be seamlessly integrated into existing business infrastructures. By focusing on essential enterprise needs, MState aims to drive the broad adoption of blockchain, transitioning it from an emerging technology to a core component of future business operations.
Direct answer — high-level overview
MState is a small, specialist early-stage crypto / Web3 investment fund that was active mainly between 2017–2019 and produced very high returns on a handful of bets (reportedly up ~100x across five investments).[1]
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MState was founded in 2017 by Eliot Durbin (Co-Founder) and Ed Sim (Co-Founder).
Key people at MState.
MState has 2 tracked investments across 2 companies. The latest tracked deal is $16.0M Series A in Fireblocks in June 2019.
| Date | Company | Round | Lead Investor(s) | Co-Investor(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2019 | Fireblocks | $16.0M Series A | — | 33N Ventures, Cyberstarts VC, DNX Ventures, Sands Capital, Shlomo Kramer, Gili Raanan, Davor Hebel, Swisscom Ventures, Tenaya Capital |
| Apr 1, 2018 | Blockdaemon | $380K Seed | Comcast Ventures | Accel, Accomplice, Boldstart Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, CRV, Kevin Ding, FirstMile Ventures, Flex Capital, GitHub Fund, Grasshopper Capital, Heavybit, L'Attitude Ventures, Laurence Jones, Oyster Ventures, Susquehanna Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, Uncork Capital, Adam Gross, Chris Mckillop, Edith Harbaugh, George Kurtz, GUY Podjarny, Liquid 2 Ventures, Plug And Play |