Hoolie Tejwani, head, Coinbase Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Hoolie Tejwani has seen both sides of modern finance up close. Before becoming head of venture investments for one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, he worked for some major Wall Street firms, but soon discovered he was more at home in a less traditional setting. “I was pulled more to the upstarts than the incumbents,” he says.
He now leads Coinbase Ventures, a team which invests off the Coinbase balance sheet in crypto and Web3 startups. He says the investment unit was envisaged as a fund that would invest to help the crypto industry develop.
“When we initially started it, we wanted to just back exceptional founders who are advancing the overall ecosystem forward, and there was a need to kind of seed the ecosystem,” he says.
Since being established in 2018 as an experimental outfit manned by volunteers from Coinbase, it has grown to become one of the leading investors in the sector, with a dedicated team that has made more than 500 investments in nearly 50 countries. “We see ourselves as a broader platform for the entire ecosystem,” says Tejwani.
The investment focus changes frequently, keeping pace with a rapidly evolving sector, where intricate new technologies keep sprouting up. Tejwani says some of the current areas of focus include stablecoin payments and infrastructure, the intersection of crypto and AI, and uses of cryptocurrencies in consumer products such as gaming.
He says Coinbase Ventures’ investment approach is primarily geared towards achieving a financial return, but it often finds strategic value in the portfolio companies, leading to M&A deals or partnerships. A recent example is the product partnership with the portfolio company Morpho, maker of a decentralised finance lending protocol that is now integrated in Coinbase’s lending services.
“Our belief is that we are part of rewiring the entire financial system onto open, permission-less blockchain networks. And we are here to invest in the founders making that happen.”
Tejwani believes crypto and decentralised finance will become more mainstream. He points to the investment company BlackRock moving into the space by opening an exchange traded fund in digital assets. “Our belief is that we are part of rewiring the entire financial system onto open, permission-less blockchain networks. And we are here to invest in the founders making that happen,” he says.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
