30s Summary

Bitcoin ETF company VanEck has launched a $30m fund, VanEck Ventures, to back early-stage start-ups in crypto and AI. Wyatt Lonergan, former head of Circle Ventures, and Juan Lopez, ex-head of corporate development and ventures at Circle Ventures, will lead the fund, which will primarily invest in tokenized assets and financial marketplaces based on stablecoins. The fund anticipates making 25-35 investments of between $500,000 and $1 million each. Two-thirds of the funds invested in VanEck Ventures will come from external investors.

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VanEck, a company that deals with Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in America, has started a new effort to back early start-ups in the crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) domain. They’ve kicked off VanEck Ventures, a fund worth $30 million that will be put into fintech, crypto, and AI-based startups during their pre-seed and seed stages, as they made public on the 9th of October.

The fund will primarily put their investment in tokenized assets, online-based financial marketplaces, and payments constructed around stablecoins and tokenized capital markets. The guys in charge of this fund are Wyatt Lonergan, the ex-boss of Circle Ventures, and Juan Lopez, the previous head of corporate development and ventures at Circle Ventures.

Circle Ventures itself was birthed in late 2021 and is a venture fund of Circle Internet Financial, which runs USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin based on market capitalization. While at Circle Ventures, both Lonergan and Lopez plowed over $50 million into start-ups ranging from basic infrastructure to consumer applications.

Lonergan pointed out that the focus of VanEck Ventures on stablecoin projects is key because stablecoins will turn into an “open-source banking layer”. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve watched as stablecoins enable large-scale value storage and transfer along with Linux-like composability,” said Lopez. He also mentioned that it is an exciting time to build as several on-chain utilities are becoming market-ready with improved regulatory clarity.

VanEck Ventures aims at making 25–35 investments, with the capital for each ranging from $500,000 to $1 million. The company has reported that they’ve already made four investments that are yet to be made public. According to The Information, about two-thirds of the cash invested in VanEck Ventures comes from investors outside the company, whereas the rest comes from within VanEck. The fund will reportedly engage in equity investments and also take stakes in companies in exchange for tokens tied to projects.

“The investments we make stem from our long-term view on opportunities that could be transformative. This has been part of our investment philosophy ever since we pioneered an approach to investing in gold in 1968 and understood the disruptive potential of Bitcoin in 2017,” stated VanEck CEO Jan van Eck. He believes that the fund could extend its vision into the early-stage venture space and they’re looking forward to aiding the creators of what they believe will be very disruptive fintech companies. Lonergan stated that they foresee the coming of “thousands of stablecoins” as every company becomes a fintech firm.

Source: Cointelegraph