Binance Labs Raises $500m to Fund Crypto, Web3 Projects

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has secured $500 million in investment funds.

The exchange announced the closing of the fund on Wednesday in a statement on its website.

Binance disclosed that global institutional investors, such as DST Global Partners, Breyer Capital and Whampoa Group, contributed to the fund.

The venture firm noted that: “the fund will invest in projects that can extend the use cases of cryptocurrencies and drive the adoption of third-generation websites (Web3) and blockchain technologies.”

Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, explained that the goal of the investment fund is to discover and support projects and founders with the potential to build and lead Web3 across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, Metaverse, social and more.

“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,” Changpeng added.

Binance Lab’s Recent Investments

Since the start of 2022, Binance Labs has made a number of investments in blockchain and Web3 projects.

Last month, the venture capital firm invested in pSTAKE Finance, a liquid staking protocol developed by Persistence as part of a move to bring more liquid staking into the BNB ecosystem.

In the past few months, the VC arm has staked its money in Community Gaming’s $16 million Series A investment round and in Aptos Labs, a Layer 1 blockchain built by some of the original creators of the Diem blockchain.

In addition, Binance Labs previously invested in Ultiverse to enhance Metaverse offerings in the BNB chain ecosystem.

A Global Portfolio

Binance says it has invested in and incubated more than 100 projects from over 25 countries through its venture arm since 2018.

This portfolio covers projects, such as Axie Infinity, Audius, 1 Inch, Dune Analytics, Elrond, Injective, The Sandbox and Polygon, among others.

The exchange said the $500 million fund will be dedicated to three different types of ventures it invests in: incubation, early-stage and late-stage growth projects.

“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,” the top exchange wrote in the statement.

Binance explained its early-stage venture investments cover token and equity investments across all sectors of cryptocurrency and Web3 including decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, gaming, Metaverse, social and crypto adoption platforms.

On the other hand, the exchange pointed out its late-stage growth investments target more mature companies that are looking to scale or bridge into the Web3 ecosystem.