Fresh(ish) from a 14-hour flight, Tobias Bauer, a Principal in the Blockchain Founders Fund, took time out from a busy FMLS to discuss the wonderful world of Web3, blockchain and exactly what a Venture Partner looks for when making an investment.

Tobias Bauer Touts Blockchain in World of Defi, Web3

After waxing lyrical about his experience at his first Finance Magnates London Summit, Tobias explained his role as a Principal in the Blockchain Founders Fund and how the company, since its inception, has been applying blockchain technology for a wide range of projects; from teaching professors "how they should talk to students" to helping the UN achieve sustainability goals.

The affable German, jet-lagged eyes lit up, then discussed some of the many intricacies and factors that come into play when making an investment.

"We stay away from hardware investments which means that we only invest in software companies because they're technically easier to scale," he explained.

Tobias then explained how important it was to do research into the founders of any company that may be a target for investment: "If you're at a pre-seat stage where there's no revenue, no product, there's only so much you can evaluate from a product perspective."

"a large part of the diligence we're doing is based on the team, for example, we use facial recognition similar to what the FBI is using in order to determine if the founders have been involved in fraud cases" he explained.

After telling of some interesting non-investment experiences, Tobias then spoke of what exactly he is looking for: "they have a very strong idea of the vision perspective, right, they know their tech, they understand what they're doing, they have the people skills," he added.

The talk then moved to the DeFi space and the link-up between the online trading world. "We're very strong on DeFi," he said and spoke of the impressive stakeholder-led innovation in the DeFi trading space. However, Tobias also pointed out the problems: "We see a big problem right now is in terms of risk and controls right, a lot of also the recent incidents with FTX, and all these other massive companies were around the fact that no one actually knew what they're doing."

Tobias Bauer Bullish on Metaverse

After discussing the Metaverse, Facebook's role, and how the Metaverse can succeed in the future, Tobias, who said the Blockchain Founders Fund will be investing in "150 companies over the next two years," talked of the emergence of Asia in the start-up space, before ending a fascinating interview with the upcoming trends we should all be looking out for.

Lots of great insights from someone whose finger is very much on the technological pulse.

See all the interviews, talks, and panels from FMLS here.