Despite volatility in recent months venture capital firms continue to raise capital for promising crypto projects. This week Binance Labs, the VC and incubation arm of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, closed a $500M investment fund that will stimulate the development of Blockchain, Web 3, and value-building technologies.
The funding round received support from DST Global Partners, a leading Internet investment firm, and Breyer Capital, global venture capital and private equity investor. Other private equity funds, family offices, and corporations also subscribed to the fund as limited partners.
Adoption of Web3 in the making
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said in the press release that the funds will go towards projects and founders with the potential to push and lead the adoption of Web3 across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, Metaverse, and social.
“We are going to invest in various sectors and kinds but will focus on infrastructure for now. Since the market is still too young we have to figure out how blockchains work and function, there is an imperative for us to help blockchains work in a more secure and scalable way,” а Binance spokesperson told The Recursive.
Binance Labs announced that the $500M investment fund will be allocated to projects across 3 stages: incubation, early-stage venture, and late-stage growth. The incubation program includes support and mentoring from Binance’s network of experts and resources to ensure successful product development. The early-stage venture investments are directed to all sectors of cryptocurrency and Web3. The focus of the late-stage growth investments will be on strategic partnerships between the Binance ecosystem and mature companies considering bridging into the Web3 space.
“We are focusing on many sectors. For example, the first batch of investments includes startups across the sectors of infrastructure, DeFi, gaming/metaverse, SocialFi/Creator Economy, Crypto Fintech, and more”, the spokesperson added.
The investment portfolio of Binance Labs in the last 4 years includes 100 projects across 25 countries. The most notable among them are 1inch, Audius, Axie Infinity, Dune Analytics, Elrond, Injective, Polygon, Optimism, The Sandbox, and STEPN.
Projects from all over the world are welcome to apply. As for whether they have an interest in the SEE region, Binance spokesperson told The Recursive that they “look at exciting projects wherever they may be”.
