Author: Nian Qing, ChainCatcher

Earlier today, Fortune magazine reported that Yida Gao, the founder of the crypto venture capital firm Shima Capital, is suspected of embezzling assets by creating a secret offshore entity to transfer the assets of his venture capital company to a company registered in his own name, without the knowledge of other investors. If true, this behavior would violate the Investment Advisers Act.

According to RootData, Shima Capital is a native crypto fund established in the United States in 2021 and is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Although Yida Gao has not been charged, his conduct clearly violates the investor protection rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Additionally, the report mentioned that Shima Capital has also experienced a wave of senior staff departures in recent months, including Chief Technology Officer Carl Hua, Research Director Alexander Lin, Chief Operating Officer and Platform Director Hazel Chen, among others. Its official website shows that the team currently has a total of 13 people, and despite the departure of several employees, Shima Capital has not yet carried out new recruitment.

As of the time of writing, Shima Capital and Yida Gao have not responded to the relevant reports. Yida Gao's last social media activity dates back to December of last year, when he was still active in various media and public relations platforms. In April 2023, Yida Gao took over the "15.492 Crypto Finance" course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the second consecutive year, replacing Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In September of last year, Yida Gao was asked in an interview with Cointelegraph, "How did Shima Capital convince investors to participate in the high-risk industry in the early days of its establishment?" He replied, "Whether in the traditional or Web3 industry, I have accumulated a good track record and credibility in the financial and venture capital fields for ten years, playing a key role in gaining the trust of investors."

Yida Gao: From Immigration to a Wall Street Financial Elite in a Small Town in Fujian

Yida Gao is a young Chinese-American who immigrated from Fujian Province to Atlanta, USA at a young age with his family. Out of nostalgia for his hometown, Yida Gao named Shima Capital after the small town, Shima Town, where he was born.

Yida Gao shares a similar background with many crypto star founders, having graduated from a prestigious university, majoring in mathematics and computer science, and having experience at major Wall Street firms.

Yida Gao holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He previously worked in research and programming positions under Professor Paul Asquith at the Sloan School of Management at MIT and at Boston McKinsey & Company. During his undergraduate years, he also had two special identities: a pole vault athlete and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

After graduation, he began his career on Wall Street, serving as an M&A analyst at Morgan Stanley, providing advice for transactions worth over $15 billion. Subsequently, Yida Gao worked as an investment advisor at New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

In 2017, Yida Gao dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business to engage in crypto investments full-time. According to his personal website, he co-managed the risk fund Struck Capital and the multi-strategy crypto fund DDC (Divergence Digital Currency) as an executive partner. During this time, he and the founder of the fund, Adam B. Struck, were jointly selected as "Forbes 30 Under 30" in the capacity of a general partner of Struck Capital.

In 2021, Yida Gao established Shima Capital. In August 2022, Shima Capital raised $200 million for its first venture capital fund, Shima Capital Fund I, focusing on seed and pre-seed investments. Notable investors in this fund include Dragonfly, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, Animoca, OKX, Mirana Ventures, and Republic Capital.

In 2022, Yida Gao was invited to teach a graduate course in cryptocurrency and finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had just vacated the position held by Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shima Capital: Focus on Startups, Invested in 200+ Projects in Three Years

Shima Capital has invested in over 200 projects in its three years of existence (the number was 100+ as of September last year). Some well-known projects it has invested in include Wombat Exchange, Berachain, Monad Network, Polkadot, Solv Protocol, Meson Network, Galxe, 1inch, and Coin98. Its most recent disclosed investment was on June 4th, ranking sixth on RootData's active investor list, and is also one of the most active VCs in 2022 and 2023.

Shima Capital primarily invests in early-stage and seed-round startups. More than half of the team members are responsible for post-investment operations and support for invested companies, including engineering design, community management, token design, and more. According to RootData, Shima's main investment areas are gaming, infrastructure, and DeFi, with investment amounts generally ranging from $500,000 to $2 million.

Currently, RootData has recorded a total of 236 investment projects by Shima Capital, with 96 projects having issued tokens. Shima mainly invests in projects with token warrants under the Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), and sometimes pure tokens. The projects it invests in typically have a lock-up period of two to four years, with an average holding period of about four years.

Shima's investment philosophy is "We run through walls for our founders." Yida Gao has mentioned in interviews that when conducting due diligence, Shima considers three aspects: the team, the product, and the market. As a seed fund, the team is the most important consideration, as products and markets are always subject to change in this rapidly evolving industry. In addition, the investment team actively seeks transaction and investment opportunities through hackathons, accelerator demo days, universities, and even Twitter and other social media platforms.

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