Brandon Kumar

Brandon Kumar is a crypto entrepreneur and investor best known as the co-founder of Layer3, an on-chain distribution, identity, and incentives platform. A 2012 graduate of The Peddie School, he went on to George Washington University, where he studied economics. He joined the asset-management firm Accolade Partners in 2014 while still an undergraduate — an unusually early start that shaped his investing career.

At Accolade Partners, a roughly $4 billion fund-of-funds manager, Kumar rose to Vice President, focusing on fund and direct investing across venture capital, growth equity, and buyouts in technology and healthcare. He became increasingly focused on crypto after Accolade made its first dedicated cryptocurrency fund commitment in 2017 (into Andreessen Horowitz's first crypto fund). By 2019 he was helping steer a ~$125 million crypto-focused fund-of-funds that gave institutional LPs diversified exposure to the sector — a bet that landed just ahead of the 2020 DeFi boom.

In spring 2021, Kumar left Accolade to co-found Layer3 with Dariya Khojasteh. The company began as a "bucket-list-as-a-service" idea for DAO contributors and evolved into a platform of interactive "quests" that onboard and reward users across blockchains. Layer3 grew to hundreds of thousands of monthly active users, drew backing and integrations from names like Coinbase and Uniswap, and later launched its own token (L3). His work at Layer3 earned him a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2024.

Note on the stub data: the "Senior Investment Associate at Accolade Partners" title appears outdated. Kumar's most senior Accolade title was Vice President, and he departed the firm in 2021; his current primary role is co-founder of Layer3.

• Invests at the seed / earliest stages, predominantly in crypto, blockchain infrastructure, and Web3 projects — the domain where he operates as a founder.
• Frames his mission around user ownership: *"Layer3's mission is to be the gateway to the ownership economy,"* reflecting a belief in user-owned software and digital ownership via crypto.
• Values founders who can assemble a committed cap table — he has emphasized "construct[ing] a round of folks" who stay committed through market downturns, prioritizing conviction over hype.
• Brings a fund-of-funds and direct-investing lens from Accolade, including experience allocating to crypto managers before the sector was institutionally mainstream.
• Co-investors on his personal deals have included North Island Ventures, Lattice, Blockchain Capital, and Edenblock.