Binance raises $500 mln for Web3-focused fund

Binance's Venture Capital arm has raised a $500 million fund to accelerate Blockchain, Web3, and value-building technologies

  • Published:
  • 03/06/2022 01:43 PM

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In a release this week, Binance Labs announced the closing of a $500 million investment fund to boost the adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology and accelerate the investments. Leading Global Institutional Investors such as DST Global Partners, Breyer Capital, Whampoa Group, and other major equity funds and organisations came forward to support the fund. 

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO and Founder of Binance, has said that this fund aims to “discover and support projects and founders with the potential” to build an ecosystem and lead Web3 across DeFi, NFTs, Metaverse, gaming, social and other platforms.

Binance Labs stated that the $500 million are “expected to be” allocated to projects across three different stages: incubation, early-stage venture, and late-stage growth.

Incubation investments aim to connect the projects with Binance’s resources, experts, and mentors to “drive successful product development and growth.” Early-stage venture investments aim to support all the sectors of Web3, including infrastructure, DeFi, NFTs, Metaverse, and more. The Late-stage growth investments aim to provide solid strategic plans to maturer companies. 

So far, the Binance Labs has invested in more than 100 projects from 25+ countries, including some industry-leading projects such as 1inch, Audius, Axie Infinity, Dune Analytics, Elrond, Injective, Polygon, Optimism, The Sandbox, and STEPN. 

Binance’s Web3-focused investment fund follows the allocation model of a16z’s $4.5 billion Web3 funds. Of the $4.5 billion, approximately $1.5 billion is for seed investments, while the other $3 billion is for venture investments.

According to data provided by Dove Metrics, the total venture capital funding declined by 38 percent (from $6.83 billion in April to $4.22 billion). Dove Metrics predicts “VC investments will slow down for the remainder of the year” in a funding winter. The Co-founder of 10T Holdings, Per Stan Miroshnik, says now is the time for investors to buy as “valuations have come in and great companies are available at a more reasonable price.”

Shashank is the founder of yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash