Cyphr
Cyphr is a venture capital firm designed to meet the needs of the next era.
We are a first check venture capital firm supporting disruptive startups in regulated industries. We strive to be the first partner in the companies of tomorrow.
We invest in amazing founders building next generation network effects and cult communities.
Why “Cyphr”? In cryptography, a “cypher” or “cipher” is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption. Given the spaces we invest in, this name seemed all too fitting. A cypher can also refer to a secret code – we are helping uncover the secret code to the future of technology.
A cypher can also be a gathering or rappers or beatboxers making freestyle music together. We consider our firm to be a cypher of brainpower, talent, and capital, all feeding off of each other to help the world reach new heights in innovation, which will ultimately fuel the democratization of capital and information for all of society. Our cypher is welcome to talent of all backgrounds, races, cultures, genders, ages, and more. This underground term originally comes from the Five Percenters, who used the term cypher to refer to knowledge that was intentionally esoteric and could only be understood by those were enlightened. Put another way, “cypher” came from the word decipher, or to reveal the meaning of. By eliminating the prefix “de,” a cypher referred to a coded message – linguistic cryptography, if you will.
However, the word cypher comes from Arabic hundreds of years prior. The Roman numeral system didn’t have a concept of zero. During the Middle Ages, the Arabic numeral system spread to Europe, and it included the innovation of the zero, or sifr. Eventually, the word was converted into English as cypher. As a first check firm, we start working with startups from ground zero, or sifr. We are your partners from your earliest stage and support you as you grow. We also believe in going back to the basics – to the fundamentals – of technology. We seek to work with startups that are focused on getting the fundamentals right. Our firm name, Cyphr, is a homage to all of these meanings, with the spelling being a homage to its roots.
