C1 is a Secondaries Fund with a focus on companies in the Digital Assets space investing globally with a presence in Silicon Valley and UAE.
Our mission is to capitalize on the opportunities in the secondary market that have opened up in the current market environment to provide investors with significant capital appreciation on an attractive risk-adjusted portfolio of digital asset companies.
Led by a team of seasoned investors with extensive secondary market experience, entrepreneurs and digital asset enthusiasts, we hope to support & foster the growth of the sector’s most promising, regulated & licensed companies.
C1 aims to be the partner of choice to companies and investors seeking liquidity in the digital assets space.
Leadership Team
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Dr. Najam Kidwai
Co-Founder, Managing Partner & IC Member
- Dubai-based UK Entrepreneur and Investor in disruptive technology companies in Asia, Europe and US. Investing in FinTech and E-Commerce since 2010
- Co-Founder and Board member of EQUIAM, a leading private markets-focused Secondaries VC Manager. Early investor in Forge Global, a secondaries fund platform (NYSE: FRGE)
- Tech investments in Stripe, Chime, Daily Pay, Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), Robinhood (Nasdaq: HOOD) and Boxed (NYSE: BOXD), Instacart.
- Successful entrepreneur and co-founder: Egg.com (now part of Citibank), Nuance (Now MSFT), and Real Time Content (now NYSE: PBI)
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Michael Lempres
Co-Founder, Managing Partner & IC Member
- Silicon Valley-based with Deep experience in heavily regulated industries, particularly blockchain and financial services companies.
- Former Chief Legal & Risk Officer at Coinbase leading through successful period of hyper growth.
- Executive in Residence at Andreessen Horowitz. Board member of public and private companies. Adviser to numerous successful startups.
- US Government and regulatory issues expert. US appointments by three U.S. Presidents and close work on a daily basis with two U.S. Attorneys General.
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Michael Zhao
Co-Founder, Managing Partner, IC Member
- Dubai and Singapore-based FinTech Entrepreneur.
- Founder and CEO of Klickl, a virtual asset service provider and digital payment processing engine VGPay
- Investing in FinTech since 2015. Former Co- Chairman of Hong Kong Blockchain Association
- Derivatives trading and risk management roles in UBS Investment Bank (USA / Singapore), China Merchants Bank (China), State Administration of Foreign Exchange (China), and Intesa Sanpaolo (Hong Kong)
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David Hytha
Co-Founder, Partner
- VC and Deal Experience in US, Asia, Europe; Silicon Valley-based
- Venture capitalist at Sofinnova Partners (Paris) and Sofinnova Ventures (Silicon Valley). Extensive work evaluating, guiding and assisting new ventures and supporting entrepreneurs. Big data and mobile leadership and finance veteran.
- Experienced Tech CFO for multiple businesses
- Public and private board experience.
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Cheriyl Lakshmy
Co-Founder, Head of Research & Operations
- 12 years in Management Consulting, M&A Research, Corporate Strategy & Planning
- Advising multiple business projects on their strategic initiatives, designing and implementing new revenue and operating models to solve business critical problems, create value and achieve targeted goals.
- Former associate at Accenture and TATA Elxsi Ltd.
- Prior experience as strategic thought partner to Telecom industry for Middle East region in GfK
- MBA in International Business (Finance & Marketing Dual Specialization), B.Tech Computer Science
