“An early-stage venture firm focused on accelerating the decentralized future, backing founders who disrupt the status quo, create entirely new markets, and are maniacally dedicated to their craft.”
Archetype categorizes its own portfolio page into Consumer, DeFi, Infrastructure, AI and Payments (roughly 65 companies across those five buckets). Splits below are computed from the 20 companies in that list we could confidently classify by chain as well as sector; the remaining 45 are sector-labeled by Archetype itself but not independently chain-verified by us.
Archetype is a San Francisco-based, early-stage crypto fund founded by Ash Egan, who has invested in crypto since 2015 with early bets on Chainalysis, Mina, Near and Balancer. The firm closed over $100 million for its latest fund in September 2025 (Fund III) and runs a genuinely public application channel, the Founder Portal, which is unusual for a fund at this stage and cheque size. The investing team splits coverage by domain: Dmitriy Berenzon on infrastructure, DePIN and DeFi research, and Danny Sursock leading AI research and investments, with Katherine Wu as a venture partner drawing on legal, investment and advisory experience across web3.
The portfolio, organized by Archetype itself into Consumer, DeFi, Infrastructure, AI and Payments, runs to roughly 65 named companies. What stands out is the exit pattern: essentially every confirmed Archetype exit has been an acquisition by a larger platform rather than a token launch or IPO, Privy by Stripe, Decent by MoonPay, Rio by Eigen Labs, Satsuma by Alchemy, Once Upon by Chainalysis, Beam by Modern Treasury, Flood by 0x, Loop by Lead Bank, and Rated by Figment. Recent additions lean into AI x crypto (Ritual, Venice, Allora), consistent with Sursock's dedicated coverage area.
Key stats:
| Partner | Role | Where to find them |
|---|---|---|
| Ash Egan | Founder and General Partner | team page, @aaegan on LinkedIn |
| Dmitriy Berenzon | Partner (infrastructure, DePIN, DeFi) | archetype.fund/team |
| Danny Sursock | Partner (AI research and investments) | archetype.fund/team |
| Katherine Wu | Venture Partner | archetype.fund/team |
| Katie Chiou | Investor, Head of Brand & Content (consumer) | archetype.fund/team |
| Aadharsh Pannirselvam | Investor (applied cryptography, decentralized AI) | archetype.fund/team |
| Tommy Hang | Investor (DeFi) | archetype.fund/team |