Mumbai: Crypto exchange Binance’s venture capital and incubation arm Binance Labs on Wednesday announced the closing of a new $500 million investment fund. The fund is supported by leading global institutional investors such as DST Global Partners, Breyer Capital, as well as other major private equity funds, family offices, and corporations as limited partners.
The new fund will be invested in projects to boost the use of blockchain, web3, and value-building technologies.
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao said: “In a web3 environment, the connection between values, people, and economies is essential, and if these three elements come together to build an ecosystem, that will accelerate the mass adoption of the blockchain technology and crypto. The goal of the newly closed investment fund is to discover and support projects and founders with the potential to build and to lead web3 across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, metaverse, social, and more.”
Since 2018, Binance Labs has invested in and incubated more than 100 projects from over 25 countries. Its portfolio includes industry-leading projects such as 1inch, Audius, Axie Infinity, Dune Analytics, Elrond, Injective, Polygon, Optimism, The Sandbox, and STEPN.
Binance Labs makes investments across three different stages: incubation, early-stage venture, and late-stage growth. The $500 million investment fund is expected to be allocated to projects spanning all three stages.
With incubation, Binance Labs aims to connect projects with Binance’s network of resources, experts, and mentors to help them drive successful product development and growth. Binance Labs runs its incubation program regularly and is currently supporting its fourth cohort.
Early-stage venture investments include token and equity investments across all sectors of cryptocurrency and web3, including infrastructure, DeFi, NFTs, gaming, metaverse, social, and crypto adoption platforms.
Late-stage growth investments target more mature companies looking to scale or bridge into the web3 ecosystem with the Binance ecosystem as a solid strategic partner.
