About The Venture Dept.
Who We Are
The Venture Dept. is an early-stage venture capital firm backing founders building the next generation of financial infrastructure. We bring deep expertise in regulatory policy, compliance, and government to the companies we back. Our team has worked at the intersection of finance, law, and technology for decades — giving our founders a meaningful edge when it matters most.
Team
Matt Homer
Matt Homer is the Founder and General Partner of The Venture Dept. He was previously an investor at Nyca Partners, where he remains involved as an Operating Partner in an advisory capacity. Before venture investing, he was Executive Deputy Superintendent at the New York State Department of Financial Services, overseeing licensing and supervision of major digital asset firms, including some of the largest exchanges, custodians, and stablecoin issuers in the U.S. Earlier in his career, he worked as a federal regulator at the FDIC. Matt has also held operating roles at Quovo and, after its acquisition, at Plaid. Matt holds a master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Jon Blattmachr
Prior to joining The Venture Dept., Jon was lead counsel for digital assets at The Bank of New York, the world's largest custodial bank. The Bank was the first Global Systemically Important Bank to offer cryptocustody and continues to be an innovator in the Web 3.0 space.
Jon was Deputy General Counsel for INX, the first company to launch an ICO through the SEC. At NYDFS, Jon was the Virtual Currency Chief and oversaw licensing, supervision, and examination of dozens of the largest crypto companies, including Coinbase, Circle, Gemini, Ripple, and PayPal. Jon was also in private practice at two large New York law firms, McDermott Will & Schulte and BakerHostetler. At Baker, Jon was instrumental in recovering billions of dollars for defrauded investors of Bernie Madoff.