Daniel Chaplin
Where next for the digital assets market?


The FTX revelations have sent tremors through the market during the last two weeks. The news has seen damage to the industry’s reputation and to investors — retail and institutional alike — who had exposure to FTX and the estimated $10bn hole in its balance sheet. There are still plenty of details that have yet …
Embedding peace of mind: Why we invested in Cover Genius


In an increasingly digitised world, you’d expect insurance to have become more convenient, available and effective for consumers and businesses. But the global protection gap is actually growing. In fact, at $1.5tn, it’s widened 20% in just the past five years. It’s a startling figure and a symptom of fundamental challenges in the way insurance is …
Another dimension: Why we invested in Omi


When it comes to online selling, the devil’s in the details. While the online sales boom — nearly 20% of retail sales worldwide in 2021 — is great news for brands, it’s putting huge pressure on the individuals who market and sell these products. Imagine you’re a content manager presenting a range of products. Whereas once a …
The foundations for crypto market access: Why we invested in Elwood


A tidal wave of institutional money has flowed into digital assets over the past two years. And, with it, we’ve seen the rapid growth of exchanges, brokers, lenders and custodians — and an emerging crypto market structure. But efficient and transparent access to this market and asset class remains a challenge, even for the most …
Why we invested in Copper


It was a dark February afternoon when we hopped onto our first zoom call with Copper’s CEO, Dmitry Tokarev, but it wasn’t long before the atmosphere was alive and brimming with excitement. Though originally hailing from icy Siberia, Dmitry clearly had a fire in his belly, and we were immediately struck by both his passion and sheer breadth …
Eigen Technologies: why we invested


The warnings about the financial crisis of 2008 were all there, hidden in plain sight — but only if you had the time or tools to look hard enough. Hedge fund manager Michael Burry, whose story was told in the film The Big Short, combed through thousands of collateralised debt obligations and realised that there …
Communications of the future will be open and secure: why we are partnering with New Vector


When Emmanuel Macron boasted about his use of Telegram in 2017, security advisors in the French Government were thrown into a panic. Macron believed that using this ‘secure’ consumer chat application demonstrated that he was a politician for modern times. But with the President’s communications being hosted on a Russian-controlled app, what his advisors saw …
More than marginal gains: our new investment in OpenGamma


At Dawn, we have strong conviction in the opportunity for ambitious and sophisticated software companies to partner with the world’s largest financial institutions to build and support next-generation financial infrastructure. Whether it is core systems, payments infrastructure or data and analytics platforms, the market is flush with exciting new entrants supporting innovation in the sector. …