Paradigm Hires David Swain as CMO

David Swain has joined Paradigm, a crypto venture capital giant, as its chief marketing officer.

Swain, who previously served as head of global communications at Instagram and senior director of technology communications at Facebook, moved to Paradigm last month, according to his LinkedIn profile. Most recently, he was vice president of global partnerships at Strava, a social fitness app with over 120 million members.

Swain’s appointment comes shortly after Paradigm raised $850 million for its third fund in June, aimed at investing in early-stage crypto projects. This follows Paradigm’s $2.5 billion fund raised in 2021, the largest crypto investment vehicle at that time.

“I’ve had a front-row seat to the past two major platform-level shifts of the internet, and the pace of development across the crypto stack is unlike anything I’ve seen,” Swain told The Block. “It’s a rare opportunity to join a team like Paradigm where there is as much of an emphasis on building as investing. Much of my career has been spent working across developer and startup ecosystems helping founders navigate growth — couldn’t be more excited to be getting back to the build phase.”

Swain believes that crypto can revolutionize money, finance, and digital property in a way similar to the internet’s impact on information and media. He emphasized the complexities founders face in fully realizing crypto’s potential and aims to support both founders and the broader community in this journey.

Paradigm’s Strategic Focus

Swain’s move to Paradigm is intriguing, particularly since the firm recently showed interest in investing in frontier technologies like artificial intelligence. Last year, Paradigm rebranded as a “research-driven technology investment firm,” although Huang asserted that their commitment to crypto remains strong alongside their interest in AI.

In 2023, Paradigm has backed over 10 crypto startups, leading and joining significant funding rounds such as:
– $225 million Series A for Monad (Layer 1 blockchain developer)
– $150 million Series A for Farcaster (decentralized social networking protocol)
– $70 million funding for Babylon (Bitcoin staking protocol)
– $55 million Series A for Succinct Labs (zero-knowledge proofs startup)

San Francisco-based Paradigm invests in startups from $1 million to over $100 million and reportedly manages over $10 billion in assets. Founded in 2018 by Huang and Fred Ehrsam, a Coinbase co-founder, Paradigm remains a major player in the crypto investment space. Ehrsam stepped back from a leadership role last October.

It’s unclear if the CMO position is newly created or if Swain is replacing someone, but it appears to be the former. Alana Palmedo, managing partner and COO at Paradigm, stated that Swain “uniquely understands the dynamics of technical breakthroughs and the opportunities they bring. He brings an incredible perspective to our portfolio and founders across the crypto industry.”

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