BitDAO's forum proposes $200M Mantle EcoFund to support Web3 startups

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A proposal has been put forward by Mantle Core on BitDAO's governance forum to establish a $200 million fund that will support early-stage Web3 startups. The purpose of the fund is to increase the adoption of Mantle's network among developers and Dapps. 

The proposal suggests that the fund will be deployed over the next three years within the Mantle ecosystem, with BitDAO's treasury contributing $100 million in USD Coin and an additional $100 million provided by external matching capital from strategic venture partners.

Several funds, including Dragonfly Capital, Pantera, Folius Ventures, Play Ventures Future Fund, Spartan, Lemniscap, Selini Capital, Cadenza Ventures, and QCP Capital, have expressed interest in participating in a proposed fund called the Mantle EcoFund. 

The fund will have a $200 million capital pool and will support early-stage Web3 startups within the Mantle ecosystem. If approved, the venture partners and the Mantle EcoFund will invest in projects with a 1:1 co-investment ratio, and the fund will target startups in their pre-seed, seed, and series A funding rounds.

The proposed Mantle EcoFund will have an active investment period of three years, with the option of a two-year extension. 

According to a spokesperson for Mantle, the fund's initial operator will be Mirana Ventures, which is a venture partner of both Bybit and BitDAO. An investment committee consisting of representatives from Mirana Ventures, Mantle, BitDAO, and Bybit will oversee the fund's operations. 

The fund aims to invest in more than 100 projects within the Mantle ecosystem and generate a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of 1.5x of cumulative performance throughout the fund's lifecycle.

The Mantle EcoFund will charge a management fee of 2 percent to support the operational expenses of the EcoFund team, including sourcing, due diligence, legal, portfolio support, and fund administration.

Similar initiatives across the crypto industry aim to drive adoption and innovation. For example, Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution, launched a $100 million fund last year to improve access to decentralised finance, onboard users, and accelerate adoption.

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