To expand a VC relationship into a sector the fund is not known for, find the deals it has already joined outside its core label and pitch into that precedent instead of arguing the thesis from scratch. NAUT's data shows CMS Holdings, a crypto-native investment firm whose portfolio reads as a DeFi book, is recorded on 110 rounds at 100 companies, 42 of those companies tagged DeFi and 7 tagged RWA, read on 10 November 2026.
That gap between the label and the record is the opening. This crypto BD playbook runs 4 steps on 1 fund, and every step is a query you can run against any crypto VC portfolio NAUT holds.
Data note
Read from NAUT's own database on 10 November 2026: 1 fund, the 110 rounds it is recorded as a backer on, and the 100 distinct portfolio companies behind them. 109 of the 110 rounds carry a disclosed amount, $1.4B in total, with a median of $4M. 96 carry an announcement date, running from 3 July 2020 to 7 August 2025. 83 of the 100 companies carry at least 1 sector tag, so the sector spread below is a share of 83 and not of 100.
10 of the 110 rounds were put to public sources for this article, 1 round per company: 7 came back confirmed, and 3 came back contradicted on a detail. Those 3 are named in the sources section. The other 100 rounds were not put through a source check, so they stand as NAUT's record and nothing more. A backer list on NAUT is NAUT's record of who joined a round, not the world's full cap table.
What does a fund's NAUT portfolio say about its real sector spread?
It says what the fund actually funded, which is the number you want before you open a conversation. 42 of the 83 sector-tagged companies in the CMS Holdings portfolio are tagged DeFi, and the next 6 tags run from 18 companies down to 7. A company can carry several tags, so these counts overlap and the shares add to more than 100%. In the table below, "Share" is a share of the 83 tagged companies, "Also DeFi" counts how many companies on that row also carry the DeFi tag, and DEX and CEX are NAUT's "DEX (Decentralized Exchange)" and "CEX (Centralized Exchange)" tags.
| Sector tag | Companies | Share | Also DeFi |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeFi | 42 | 51% | 42 |
| DEX | 18 | 22% | 8 |
| Infrastructure | 12 | 14% | 3 |
| L1/2/3 | 10 | 12% | 7 |
| CEX | 9 | 11% | 7 |
| RWA | 7 | 8% | 7 |
| Gaming | 7 | 8% | 1 |
The last column is the one a BD lead should read twice. All 7 RWA-tagged companies also carry DeFi, while 1 of the 7 gaming companies does, which says which neighbouring sectors sit next to this book and which sit a long way from it.
The core is easy to read from the big recent cheques: Monad at $225M on 9 April 2024, Alex at $10M on 26 March 2024, aPriori at $8M on 25 July 2024. Pitch a DeFi or a trading product and you are in the middle of that book. The question this playbook answers is what to do when your product is not.
How do you expand a VC relationship into a sector the fund never labelled?
Name the rounds the fund already joined in your sector, with the date and the amount, and make the ask the same shape as those cheques. For CMS Holdings the sector with a quiet record is RWA: 7 of the 83 sector-tagged companies carry that tag, across 7 rounds. 6 of them are in the table below. The 7th RWA-tagged company is left out of the table for a reason of its own: its round carries no announcement date on NAUT's record, so it cannot be placed in the timeline or checked against an announcement.
| Company | Round | Amount | Announced |
|---|---|---|---|
 Avalanche |
Funding Round | $230M | 16 Sep 2021 |
 SynFutures |
Series A | $14M | 16 Jun 2021 |
 Injective |
Strategic Round | $10M | 20 Apr 2021 |
 BounceBit |
Seed Round | $6M | 28 Feb 2024 |
 Solv Protocol |
Series A | $4M | 1 Dec 2021 |
 Ondo Finance |
Seed Round | $4M | 18 Aug 2021 |
The round type and the amount are the values NAUT stores for that round, and none of the 6 carries a lead flag for the fund. 5 of the 6 were announced in 2021 and 1 in February 2024, so the precedent is real and it is old. Every one of the 6 also carries DeFi on the same row, 3 of them also carry L1/2/3 and 1 also carries DEX, which tells you how to frame the ask: a tokenised-asset product a DeFi desk already recognises.
How much did each of those rounds raise?
Ranked by the amount NAUT stores for the round. 1 round of $230M sets the top of the chart and the other 5 sit between $4M and $14M, which is the band a new ask should look like. The fund's median across all 109 rounds with an amount is $4M.
What role does the fund take, and what should you ask for?
Ask for a participation cheque and bring your own lead. NAUT's data shows 0 of the 110 rounds carry a lead flag for CMS Holdings, including all 7 RWA-tagged rounds. The source check backs that shape: the public announcement for the Alex round names another firm as the lead, with "additional participation from CMS Holdings, DACM, DWF Labs, Foresight Ventures", and the announcement for the aPriori round reads "We are excited to announce our $8M Seed Round led by Pantera, bringing our total funding to $10M."
Pace matters as much as role. 68 of the 96 dated rounds landed in 2021, 10 in 2024, and 2 were announced on or after 1 January 2025, the most recent on 7 August 2025. That is a count of what NAUT holds rather than a verdict on the firm, so treat the date as a prompt to read the fund's own site and X account before you spend a week on the introduction.
What this tells a BD lead or a founder raising
When you pitch an existing investor contact on a deal outside their book, 5 points carry the note.
- Lead with their own deal rather than with your sector. "You joined the Ondo Finance seed in 2021 and BounceBit in 2024" is a sentence the other side cannot argue with.
- Size the ask to the record. $4M is the median round across the 109 with an amount, and 5 of the 6 dated RWA rounds sat between $4M and $14M.
- Offer the role they take. 0 of 110 rounds on NAUT's record carry a lead flag for this fund, so arriving with a lead already signed removes the objection before it is raised.
- Use a portfolio company as the warm path. The 6 companies in the table each have a team listed on their NAUT page, and a founder they already backed is a better router than a cold note to the fund.
- Check the round before you quote it. 3 of the 10 rounds checked came back contradicted on a detail, and a wrong date in the first line of an email costs you the meeting.
- Read the real spread42 of the 83 sector-tagged companies at CMS Holdings are DeFi, so the label is earned.
- Find the off-core precedent7 companies carry the RWA tag, from Ondo Finance at $4M in 2021 to BounceBit at $6M in 2024.
- Match the role and the size0 of the 110 rounds carry a lead flag, and the median round is $4M, so ask for a participation cheque.
- Verify, then route itConfirm the round against its own announcement, then open the company's NAUT page and ask its founder for the introduction.
Who do you contact to expand a VC relationship into a new sector?
Through the people NAUT lists on each page, in 2 passes. Pass 1 is the portfolio company: Ondo Finance, BounceBit, Solv Protocol, Injective, SynFutures and Avalanche each list their team on their NAUT project page, so you can ask a founder the fund already backed for a 1 line forward. Pass 2 is the fund page itself, CMS Holdings, which holds the firm's full portfolio and its people. Its Team section names 2 people, Jezerc Jack Begaj and Bobby Cho, each with their own NAUT profile page, and Bobby Cho is a CMS Holdings co-founder. Neither row carries a job title on NAUT's record, so read the profile page before you pick who to write to.
Related reading on NAUT: Crypto co-investors: 3 steps, 168 on 66 rounds for 1 fund and How to research a VC fund: 6 checks, 23 rounds, 27 partners.
Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?
Yes, the whole portfolio behind this article comes back from 1 call, GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/cms-holdings with Authorization: Bearer $NAUT_KEY, which returns the fund with its team and every portfolio row carrying company, roundType, amountUsd, announceDate and isLead, the fields behind the tables and the lead check above. That is 5 credits, and swapping the slug runs the same 4 steps on any other fund; plans and the free trial are at naut.so/pricing and the parameters are at naut.so/docs/api. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for the people on those pages unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial when you are ready to send the note.
Expand a VC relationship FAQ
How do I pitch an investor on a deal outside their sector?
Open with a round they already joined in that sector, with the date and the amount, then size your ask to their median cheque. NAUT's data read on 10 November 2026 shows CMS Holdings joined 7 RWA-tagged rounds, 5 of them announced in 2021 and 1 in February 2024, while 42 of its 83 sector-tagged companies are DeFi.
How do I tell whether a crypto fund can lead my round?
Read the lead flag on every round it joined. For CMS Holdings, 0 of the 110 rounds on NAUT's record carry a lead flag, so a founder approaching it should arrive with a lead already committed and ask for a participation cheque near the fund's $4M median.
Where can I find a crypto fund's portfolio, its sector spread and its contacts?
On NAUT. The fund page carries the portfolio rows this article is built from, 110 rounds at 100 companies for this 1 fund, and GET https://api.naut.so/v1/investors/cms-holdings returns the same rows as JSON. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for the people listed unlock on any paid NAUT plan, so start a 7-day trial if you need the channel and not only the name.
How old is the off-sector precedent for this fund?
5 of the 6 dated RWA-tagged rounds were announced in 2021 and 1 on 28 February 2024, and the fund's most recent round of any kind on NAUT's record was announced on 7 August 2025. An old precedent is still a precedent, and it is worth confirming against the fund's own site before you lean on it.
Sources
- NAUT's own database, read on 10 November 2026: the 110 rounds recorded against CMS Holdings, the 100 distinct portfolio companies behind them, their sector tags, round types, disclosed amounts, announcement dates and lead flags.
- 10 of those 110 rounds were checked against public announcements for this article, 1 per company. 7 came back confirmed: Avalanche ($230M, 16 September 2021), SynFutures ($14M, 16 June 2021), Injective ($10M, 20 April 2021), BounceBit ($6M, 28 February 2024), Monad ($225M, 9 April 2024), Alex ($10M, 26 March 2024) and aPriori ($8M, 25 July 2024).
- 3 came back contradicted on a detail, and the tables above print what NAUT stores: the Ondo Finance seed is dated 18 August 2021 on NAUT and 17 August 2021 in the announcement, the Solv Protocol Series A is dated 1 December 2021 on NAUT and 2 December 2021 in the announcement, and for the Fogo Chain round the source dates it later in January 2025 than NAUT's 1 January 2025 and attributes part of the $8M to the vehicle CMS Holdings came in through. None of the 3 disputes the amount or the fund's participation.
- The other 100 rounds in this fund's record were not put through a source check.
- Alex round, 26 March 2024: The Block and ALEX Lab's own post.
- aPriori round, 25 July 2024: the team's own announcement.
- SynFutures round, 16 June 2021: the company's own release and CoinDesk.