C1 Fund Inc.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to C1 Funds Q3 Earnings Call 2025. Please note that this call is being recorded and will also be available for replay purposes. Following the conversation, we'll answer any questions that have been submitted through the Ask a Question tab at the top right hand of your screen. This call may include forward-looking statements about the expected investment activities of C1 Fund. These statements provide no assurance as to C1 Fund's actual investment activities or results. Listeners must make their own assessment of the information contained herein and consider such other factors as they may deem relevant to their individual circumstances. I would now like to hand the call over to Dr Najeeb Kidway. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and thank you for your partnership as we continue building what we believe will be one of the most unique and compelling investment vehicles in the digital asset ecosystem. When we launched C1 Fund, we made a clear commitment to provide investors with access to high-quality, late-stage private digital asset services and technology companies. The companies that are building the infrastructure of this industry. No speculative tokens, no momentum trades, but companies with real revenue, traction, and institutional relevance. From day one, our investment framework has been fully transparent. We've been focusing on late stage private companies, emphasis on critical infrastructure and mission essential service providers, disciplined entry prices, ideally at discounts to their last primary funding rounds, and companies that have been positioned for IPOs or strategic transactions or strong private market exits. Our progress this quarter and into the fourth quarter reflects strong execution against that strategy. As outlined in yesterday's earning release, we completed one investment during the third quarter, a $2 million investment in Figment, with a fair valuation of $2.035 million at quarter end. More significantly, in the first 45 days of the fourth quarter, we have deployed over $16.5 million into late-stage digital asset companies, including Kraken, Ripple, and Chain Analysis. We expect to deploy an additional 10.5 million during the remainder of the fourth quarter, bringing deployment to approximately 27 million and total invested capital to 29 million by the year end of 2025. This rapid and disciplined deployment for a $60 million IPO. With that overview, I'll turn the call over to our CIO, Elliot Hand, to provide additional detail on our investments, our deployment process, and what investors should understand about timing and disclosures. Elliot, over to you.

Thank you, Naj. Welcome all. So today I'm pleased to confirm that our portfolio now includes several of the most valuable and hard to access private companies in the digital asset ecosystem. Let me walk through some of the names we have announced this quarter. So we talk about Figment. Figment was our first investment post IPO and is a foundational name in digital asset infrastructure. They provide institutional grade staking, data and network services to major proof of stake networks and enterprise clients. Their growth mirrors the increasing institutional adoption of these technologies, exactly the type of infrastructure we aim to own. The next is Ripple. Ripple is one of the most established global payment infrastructure providers out there. They support enterprise remittances, compliance rails, and cross-border payments. Their recent raise attracted firms such as Citadel Securities, Pantera, Galaxy, and Marshall Ways. Being able to invest alongside these institutions is a meaningful validation of our sourcing capabilities. We've also added Kraken, one of the longest standing and consistently profitable US exchanges. Its financial profile makes it, in our view, one of the most mature and operationally disciplined companies in the sector. We secured our position at a very compelling valuation. Shortly after completing its recent $800 million raise, Kraken announced that it is confidentially filed to go public, a major step that underscores the quality of the companies we're bringing into the portfolio. Chain analysis. We've also added Chainalysis, which is widely regarded as the global standard for blockchain compliance and analytics. Their software supports governments, federal agencies, financial institutions, and global corporates. It enables investigations and compliance work across trillions of dollars in blockchain activity. This is mission critical infrastructure, not speculation, and exactly the type of essential company we seek to bring into the portfolio. So this portfolio of category defining companies reflects the strategy we laid out from the start. And importantly, it's not only the quality of the names, it's also the terms at which we were able to own them. We are acquiring these companies at meaningful discounts to their prior funding rounds, including the recent ones. We believe these entries are highly attractive relative to where traditional institutional investors have historically participated. This pace of activity reinforces two major points here. One, our access is real and highly differentiated. And two, our pipeline is deep and actionable. We believe our portfolio consists of companies with scale, revenue, and long-term growth potential. Names that many private investors cannot access and certainly not at the pricing and structures we've secured. So before I turn it back to Naj, I want to address the few questions we hear often. Why does it sometimes take time to move from identifying an investment to actually closing it? It's a fair question, essentially given how quickly we can source opportunities. So late stage private transactions evolve structural, legal, and operational steps that naturally take weeks or months. This is standard. and often reflects the strong governance frameworks these companies maintain. Here, what is typically driving timing is a variety of things. Number one, it's the company capacity. Late stage companies are preparing for IPOs, financings, or regulatory reviews, and they have busy legal, finance, and compliance teams. This affects scheduling and document turnaround. The second is legal, regulatory, and operational reviews. Before a transaction closes, both sides must work through a wide range of requirements. We're talking transfer restrictions, corporate documentation, prior investor rights, securities law compliance, governance positions, custody arrangements, full KYC, AML, and beneficial owner screening. I purposely read all of these tasks to you so you know the extent of the list. These steps aren't optional. They exist to protect the fund and ultimately our shareholders. Third, company level approvals. Many transactions require formal board approval or right of first refusal reviews, transfer agent sign offs, and in some cases, notices to existing shareholders or option holders. A simple example, we have one investment right now that's fully agreed and ready to fund, but unannounced because the company requires formal board approval at its next quarterly meeting. That is entirely standard, but not always visible externally. And fourth, closing conditions. Even once approvals are complete, the transaction may still depend on funding mechanics, regulatory or tax certifications, There's counterparty deliverables, as well as settlement through custodians. These are, again, routine steps in the private markets, and they all contribute to the overall timeline. So the big question here is, what does this mean for all our shareholders? It means that while we can often source these opportunities very quickly, often earlier than other market participants, the closing process naturally takes longer. That is standard for late stage private deals. And in our view, it reflects the quality and maturity of the companies we invest in. These steps validate the opportunity and enhance our risk controls and reinforce the institutional discipline behind how the portfolio is built. And more importantly, we manage all of this operational, legal and regulatory complexity on your behalf. So you are not burdened with it. Another question we receive is why some investments are disclosed immediately while others cannot yet be named. The explanation is straightforward. Many late stage private companies request confidentiality and prohibit early disclosure. They may be preparing for a public listing, conducting a financing, navigating regulatory reviews, or working through other sensitive corporate events. In those situations, they often prefer that new investor participation remained undisclosed until the appropriate milestone. We respect those requests because maintaining strong relationships with these companies is essential to sustaining our access to high quality opportunities. Many of these companies can simply say no and not sell us any stock. We obviously do not want to be put in that type of position. So what should investors expect going forward? At the same time, as all of the work we're doing, we are strongly committed to transparency and given these dynamics, here's what investors should expect. One is ongoing announcements as transactions close. We will disclose names as soon as they close and we are contractually allowed. As an example, we currently have a company which has filed confidentially for an IPO and has asked us not to disclose our holding just yet. Two, full transparency at quarter end. Our SEC filings will continue to include purchase prices and fair value marks. And that's what you saw at the end of Q3 with the investment figment, which closed in that quarter. You should expect to see the details at the end of the close of Q4 for the other names of companies that I've read today, as well as any that we will announce here in Q4. Deployment on track. So we remain well within the six to 12 month window deployment outlined at the IPO. As Naj mentioned, and also in our press release, we've already deployed over 16.5 million in the first half of the fourth quarter. And we expect approximately 27 million of total Q4 deployment that would bring ERN capital, invested capital to 29 million. Ongoing discipline is our last bucket here. We will only invest when the right company comes along at the right price under the right structure Now, by putting it all this together, while individual transactions vary in timing, as I mentioned, the overall pace of portfolio construction is ahead of schedule. Our process remains deliberate, disciplined, and aligned with long-term shareholder interests. We will continue providing timely and transparent updates as transactions close. Now, with that, I'll turn it back to Naj.