The company was founded in 2015 and is one of the first officially registered investment firms in Europe to make investments in blockchain. The name-change went into effect on 1 November 2018.

Maven 11 Capital says that the move was “a logical step” in their journey. The name comes from the fact that “maven” means a “trusted expert” and 2011, when they began.

“This new, improved and future-proof setup goes far beyond investing or trading in cryptocurrencies, so we decided to move away from the name CryptoCrunch and rebrand,” they said in a release.

The investment outfit explains that they started investing in bitcoin and blockchain projects in 2011 after looking for alternative financial systems during the financial crisis, actions which were underscored by their fascination with blockchain’s disruptive potential.

When 2015 rolled around, they decided to continue working as professional investors, refining their proposition and building a fund infrastructure for onboarding external investors, launching a fund in 2017, “as the first official blockchain focussed fund in the Netherlands”.

They rode 2017’s bear market and in 2018’s drop in crypto valuations and changing market dynamics for investors, where notable projects are funded for the most part through strategic investors in closed settings, they became early-stage investors. Here, they “are able to support ventures by leveraging knowledge, network and access to (more) capital”, combining this with professional management of their portfolio to enhance performance.