Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has announced the closing of a new $500 million investment fund. The funding saw participation from global institutional investors such as DST Global Partners, Breyer Capital, as well as other private equity funds, family offices, and corporations as limited partners. The new fund will be invested in projects for extending the use cases of cryptocurrencies and drive the adoption of Web3.0 and blockchain technologies. “The goal of the newly closed investment fund is to discover and support projects and founders with the potential to build and to lead Web3.0 across decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), gaming, metaverse, social, and more,” Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO, Binance, said.
According to Binance Labs, the fresh funds will be invested across three different stages– incubation, early-stage venture, and late-stage growth. With incubation, the company aims to connect projects with Binance’s network of resources, experts, and mentors to help them drive product development and growth. Binance Labs runs its own incubation program and is currently supporting its fourth cohort. Early-stage venture investments include token and equity investments across all sectors of cryptocurrency and Web3.0, including infrastructure, DeFi, NFT, gaming, metaverse, social, and crypto adoption platforms. Meanwhile, late-stage growth investments will target companies looking to scale or bridge into the Web3.0 ecosystem with the Binance ecosystem as a strategic partner. The $500 million investment fund is expected to be allocated to projects spanning all three stages.
Binance Labs claims to have invested in and incubated more than 100 projects from over 25 countries since 2018. It also claims to have a portfolio that includes projects such as 1inch, Audius, Axie Infinity, Dune Analytics, Elrond, Injective, Polygon, Optimism, The Sandbox, and STEPN.