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Does this VC syndicate or lead alone: 5 checks, 295 funds

By NAUT Research · · 11 min read

193 of 295 Crypto VC syndication funds with 10 or more rounds on NAUT have never been a round's single named backer. Logos: Alliance DAO, Coinbase Ventures, AU21 Capital, LD Capital, NVIDIA Venture Capital, X21 Digital, Binance Labs, Mirana Ventures, ExNetwork Capital, a16z crypto, DWF Labs, Paradigm, Standard Crypto.

Does this VC syndicate or lead alone, in short: NAUT holds 13,284 round-backer records across rounds announced from 31 October 2013 to 1 November 2026, and 295 funds in that set sit on 10 or more rounds. 193 of those 295, 65%, have never once been the single backer NAUT names on a round, while NVIDIA Venture Capital is the single named backer on 115 of its 118 rounds and Alliance DAO on 141 of its 202.

Data note. Every count here was read from NAUT's own database on 5 November 2026, read-only, off the 13,284 rows that tie a fund to a round. A round counts as a solo round for a fund when that fund is the single backer NAUT's record names on it, which is a fact about NAUT's record and not a claim that nobody else wrote a cheque. 13,232 of the 13,284 rows carry a fund, and 1,278 distinct funds hold at least 1 round; the 295-fund set is every fund with 10 or more. The co-investor overlap counts in check 3 come from a second read-only query over the same rows on 5 November 2026, saved beside this article as cobackers.json. No round count on this page was put to an outside source. What was checked outside NAUT: 1 claim about the firm itself for 10 of the 13 funds named here, 8 confirmed and 2 contradicted, with Standard Crypto, LD Capital and X21 Digital never put to that check. The 2 that failed are both stored X handles: NVIDIA Venture Capital's row carries NVIDIA's corporate account and the check found NVIDIA's venture arm working under the name NVentures, and Binance Labs' row carries a handle posting the Binance exchange tagline rather than the fund's, so read both row names as NAUT's labels. NAUT Research wrote it.

Does this VC syndicate or lead alone: 5 checks on NAUT's record

A fund's outreach odds change with the answer. A fund that has never appeared alone on NAUT's record is a fund you approach with a syndicate in mind, and a fund that appears alone most of the time can close a round by itself. These 5 checks take about 10 minutes per fund on the fund's NAUT page.

  • Check the volume first. A 100% solo rate off 2 rounds is noise, which is why this article works off funds with 10 or more rounds: 295 of the 1,278 funds NAUT ties to at least 1 round.
  • Count the rounds where NAUT names no other backer. That share is the sole backer rate, and it runs from 0% to 97% across the 295.
  • Read the fund type NAUT stores. Incubation and Corporate rows run far hotter than Venture rows, on numbers set out below.
  • Read who sits next to it. AU21 Capital and X21 Digital share 62 rounds on NAUT's record, so either name tells you most of what the other will see.
  • Treat the lead flag as thin. NAUT flags a lead on 246 of the 13,284 rows, so for most rounds the solo count is the usable signal.
The 5-check screen on 1 fund
  1. Check the round count295 of 1,278 funds on NAUT hold 10 or more rounds; below that a solo rate means little.
  2. Count the solo roundsCoinbase Ventures is the single named backer on 9 of 185 rounds, a 5% sole backer rate.
  3. Read the stored fund typeIncubation rows run at 35.3% solo across 521 rounds, Venture rows at 2.7% across 6,412.
  4. Read the co-investorsExNetwork Capital shares 33 rounds with X21 Digital and 29 with AU21 Capital.
  5. Pitch to the patternA fund at 0% across 168 rounds needs a syndicate around it before your ask lands.

Check 1: count the rounds before you read the rate

NAUT ties 13,232 of its 13,284 round-backer rows to a named fund, spread across 1,278 funds. Most of those funds hold a handful of rounds, and 295 hold 10 or more. Those 295 account for 10,100 round records between them, of which 522 are rounds with no second backer on NAUT's record, a 5.2% sole backer rate across the whole set.

Start at the round count because a rate off a small denominator moves on a single deal. A fund with 3 rounds and 1 solo round reads as 33%, and 1 missing backer row would make it 0%.

Check 2: count the rounds where NAUT names no other backer

Open the fund's NAUT page and count the rounds where it is the single name on the round. That is the number that separates the 13 funds in the table below, and it separates them by a long way: 97% at the top and 0% for 5 of them.

Check 3: read the fund co-investors, not the fund alone

The same rounds that give you a solo count give you the fund co-investors. On NAUT's record AU21 Capital and X21 Digital share 62 rounds, LD Capital and AU21 Capital share 40, ExNetwork Capital shares 33 with X21 Digital and 29 with AU21 Capital. On the other side of the market Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto share 12 rounds, Standard Crypto and a16z crypto share 6, and Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures share 7. NVIDIA Venture Capital's widest overlap with any other fund on NAUT's record is 2 rounds, which is what a 97% sole backer rate looks like from the co-investor side.

That matters for a founder raising: a warm path into 1 fund in a tight cluster is a warm path into the cluster.

Check 4: read the stored fund type

NAUT stores a fund type on 209 of the 295, and the type tracks the behaviour. Accelerator and incubator rows take small positions on their own, corporate arms write strategic cheques into rounds NAUT often records with no other backer, and exchange arms and generalist venture funds ride along with others.

Check 5: do not lean on the lead flag

246 of the 13,284 round-backer rows carry NAUT's lead flag. That is a small slice, so a fund with no flagged lead round has not been shown to follow rather than lead. The solo count covers the whole 13,284 and is the check that answers the question today.

Which crypto funds back rounds alone, and which never do?

13 funds, ranked by sole backer rate, the share of their rounds where NAUT's record names no other backer. Every figure is NAUT's own count as of 5 November 2026. In the table, Type is the fund type NAUT stores, Solo is how many of the fund's rounds on NAUT name no other backer out of its total, and Rate is that share.

Fund Type Solo Rate
Corporate 115 of 118 97%
Incubation 141 of 202 70%
Venture 21 of 49 43%
Incubation 42 of 105 40%
Venture 11 of 52 21%
Venture 6 of 40 15%
Venture 2 of 15 13%
Exchange 9 of 185 5%
Venture 0 of 168 0%
Venture 0 of 121 0%
Venture 0 of 116 0%
Venture 0 of 86 0%
No type stored 0 of 78 0%

4 of these 13 rows carry something from an outside check. Paradigm came back as a San Francisco firm founded in June 2018, AU21 Capital as a San Francisco firm founded in 2017, ExNetwork Capital as an investment firm based in Manila, and DWF Labs' own site describes it as a digital-asset market maker and investor. 1 more is worth knowing before you write to them: the check found a16z renamed a16z Crypto to a16z Frontier on 22 October 2026 and widened the fund past crypto while still investing in it, so NAUT's row name is the older one.

Sole backer rate, 12 of the 13 funds, percent of rounds where NAUT names no other backer
  1. NVIDIA Venture Capital97'%'
  2. Alliance DAO70'%'
  3. DWF Labs43'%'
  4. Binance Labs40'%'
  5. a16z crypto21'%'
  6. Standard Crypto13'%'
  7. Coinbase Ventures5'%'
  8. AU21 Capital0'%'
  9. LD Capital0'%'
  10. X21 Digital0'%'
  11. Mirana Ventures0'%'
  12. ExNetwork Capital0'%'

Paradigm at 15% is the 1 fund left off the chart and sits between a16z crypto and Standard Crypto in the table above. The 5 funds at 0% hold 569 rounds between them on NAUT's record and no round where they are the single name.

How is crypto VC syndication spread across the 295 funds?

The 13 above are the ends of the range. The whole set clusters hard at the bottom. Band is the sole backer rate band, Funds is how many of the 295 sit in it, and Named here lists the funds from this article that fall in that band.

Band Funds Named here
0% 193 , , , ,
1% to 9% 85
10% to 24% 13 , ,
25% to 49% 2 ,
50% to 74% 1
75% to 100% 1

278 of the 295 sit under 10%. So the default answer to the question in the headline is syndication, and a fund that reads otherwise on NAUT's record is the exception you should plan around.

Does the stored fund type predict it?

It does, across the 295, and the 2 types that run hottest lean on very few rows. Type is the fund type NAUT stores, Rounds is the rounds those funds hold between them, Solo is how many of those rounds name no other backer, and Rate is Solo as a share of Rounds.

Type Funds Rounds Solo Rate
Incubation 7 521 184 35.3%
Corporate 13 482 129 26.8%
Guild 1 25 1 4.0%
Exchange 5 354 11 3.1%
Venture 169 6,412 174 2.7%
Angel Investors 5 89 1 1.1%
No type stored 86 1,802 20 1.1%
Hedge 5 284 2 0.7%
DAO 4 131 0 0.0%

Read the top 2 rows with care. 183 of the 184 solo rounds in the Incubation row belong to Alliance DAO and Binance Labs, and 115 of the 129 in the Corporate row belong to NVIDIA Venture Capital. The pattern is real in NAUT's record and it rests on 3 funds, so check the fund rather than inferring from its type.

The Venture row is the one most readers will hit: 169 funds, 6,412 rounds, 2.7% of them with a single named backer, and 99 of those 169 funds at 0%.

Does this VC syndicate or lead alone: what each answer changes for your outreach

  • A fund at 0% over 100 or more rounds, such as AU21 Capital at 168 or LD Capital at 121, has shown up with company every time NAUT recorded it. Bring it a round that already has shape, and name who else is in.
  • A fund above 25%, which is 4 of the 295, can be the whole round. Alliance DAO at 141 of 202 and NVIDIA Venture Capital at 115 of 118 are the 2 clearest cases in this set.
  • A dense cluster is a routing map. 62 shared rounds between AU21 Capital and X21 Digital means a pitch to 1 is seen next to the other.
  • An exchange or corporate arm answers a different question than a generalist fund does. Coinbase Ventures sits on 185 rounds with 9 solo; a strategic yes there is a distribution conversation as much as a money one.
  • Check the fund's page for its partners before the fund's record. The round history tells you how to pitch; the people tell you who to send it to.
How a founder or BD lead works this
  1. Pull the fund's round listOpen its NAUT page and count rounds and solo rounds, the way the 13 funds above are counted.
  2. Place it in a band278 of the 295 funds with 10 or more rounds sit under a 10% sole backer rate.
  3. Map the regularsAU21 Capital and X21 Digital share 62 rounds, Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto 12.
  4. Pick the ask to matchA 0% fund gets a syndicate ask; 1 of the 4 funds above 25% can be asked to carry it.
  5. Write to a named partnerEach fund's NAUT page lists its team and the channels NAUT holds on file.

What this measure does not tell you

A solo count is a count of NAUT's records. A round where NAUT's record names 1 backer may have had others who were never recorded on it, so every number here reads as "no other backer on NAUT's record" and never as "no other investor". Treat the rates as a ranking of how often a fund appears alone in this dataset.

2 more limits worth stating. Round records carry no amount in this count, so a fund appearing alone on a $350,000 pre-seed and a fund appearing alone on a growth round read the same. And 1,278 funds hold at least 1 round while only 295 hold 10 or more, so for most funds on NAUT the honest answer is that the record is too short to call.

Related reading on NAUT: How to find the lead investor: 3 ways, tested on 20 rounds and Crypto co-investors: 3 steps, 168 on 66 rounds for 1 fund.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes. GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/alliance-dao with the header Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY returns 1 fund with its team and its portfolio rows, and each row carries the company, roundType, amountUsd, announceDate and isLead, which is what this article's solo counts are built from; GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors?q=capital&sort=portfolio walks the fund list 100 rows at a time. Each data call costs 5 credits, so the 13 funds here are 65 credits, and Essential at $49 a month carries 3,000 credits (docs, pricing). Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for the partners behind these funds unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial if you need the channel and not the count.

Does this VC syndicate or lead alone FAQ

How to tell if a VC leads alone or syndicates?

Count the fund's rounds on its NAUT page, then count how many of them name no other backer, and read that share against the 295 funds with 10 or more rounds on NAUT, where 193 sit at 0% and 278 sit under 10%. Check the round count first, because a rate off fewer than 10 rounds moves on a single deal.

Which crypto fund backs the most rounds alone?

Of the 295 funds with 10 or more rounds on NAUT as of 5 November 2026, NVIDIA Venture Capital has the highest sole backer rate at 115 of 118 rounds, 97%, and Alliance DAO has the most solo rounds by count at 141 of 202, 70%. DWF Labs at 43% and Binance Labs at 40% are the only other 2 funds in that set above 25%.

Does a single named backer on NAUT mean the fund was the only investor?

No. It means NAUT's record names 1 backer on that round, out of 13,284 round-backer rows covering 31 October 2013 to 1 November 2026, and a round can have had backers that were never recorded against it. Use the counts to rank how often a fund appears alone in NAUT's data.

Where can I find these 13 funds, their partners and their contact channels?

Each fund has its own NAUT page with its round history, its co-investors and the people NAUT names at it, and the same data comes back from GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/<slug> at 5 credits a call, so the 13 funds in this article cost 65 credits. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for those partners unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial to open the channels.

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