The venture capital and innovation incubator of Binance – Binance Labs – raised $500 million for its first start-up fund and intends to invest the sum into entities part of the Web3 ecosystem.
Bullish on the Web3 Universe
The multimillion fund was led by the American venture capital firms DST Global and Breyer Capital. Other undisclosed family offices and corporations also took part in the investment.
Binance Labs’ main target is to funnel the capital into companies building the Web3 ecosystem. It intends to do so across three stages – incubation, early-stage, and late-stage growth.
Web3 is touted as the new iteration of the Internet based on blockchain technology. Ken Li – Executive Director of Binance Labs – noted that the number of Web3 developers has recently increased from 300,000 to 500,000.
He explained that the space is particularly interesting for his company since it is in its early days and could turn out to be the next big thing. Projects that encompass Web3 include non-fungible tokens and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs):
“We are looking for projects with the potential to drive the growth of the Web3 ecosystem.”
Li added that start-ups with valuations of over $1 billion show signs of “slowing down a bit.” However, this is not the case with early-stage market members such as Web3 enterprises.
The executive asserted that Binance Labs “always does its due diligence and has a strong conviction in its investment strategy.” It is also aware of the risks of investing in enterprises that are in their early days of existence:
“We know that investing in early stages involves risks. The industry is still young and was younger back then.”
Binance Labs has a rich investment portfolio. Over the years, it has allocated funds to the business magazine Forbes, Sky Mavis (the company behind Axie Infinity), and many more.
Binance Labs’ Success in Recent Years
In an interview for CryptoPotato, Binance Labs Investment Director Chase Guo stated that the organization “has incubated over 100 projects in more than 25 countries” since its establishment in 2018.
He explained that before investing, Binance Labs always explore the fundamentals of the enterprises, their teams, and their vision for the future.
“We provide full support to all projects, from day-to-day operational advice to integrations with the Binance ecosystem. We guide our portfolio companies through different products, including NFT IGO, Binance Launchpad, Launchpool, listing, and more,” Guo highlighted.