Investcorp, a global alternative investment management company with over $34 billion in AUM, has launched its first institutional blockchain fund to support a range of blockchain-related startup projects.
Investcorp Launches Blockchain Fund
The blockchain fund, dubbed eLydian Lion, is is based in the GCC with a global investment mandate. It is designed to assist investors acquire adequate knowledge of the rapidly growing blockchain ecosystem.
eLydian Lion will invest in the start-up stages of companies building around the blockchain ecosystem in areas such as blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), exchanges, and smart contract platforms.
The blockchain fund will be spearheaded by Investcorp’s Abu Dhabi office.
According to Gilbert Kamieniecky, head of Investcorp’s Technology Private Equity business, the company believes that blockchain and its ecosystem will have a profound effect on its economy.
Kamieniecky also shared the driving force behind the company’s new development, while citing an example of how asset tokenization has risen to become more than a $40 billion market.
“This new Fund will support the most innovative entrepreneurs from around the world who are developing the blockchain ecosystem and defining what the future digital economy will be,” he said.
Crypto Firms Gain Investment Funds
As the blockchain ecosystem continues to disrupt the existing economic market, many cryptocurrency-related institutions continue to gain traction from investment firms.
Last week, Binance US raised more than $200 million from a seed funding round, putting the company at a $4.5 billion market valuation. The funding is aimed at educating new users in the crypto market, thereby bringing in more users into the ecosystem. The fund will also be utilized to create and launch new crypto products and derivatives.
In another report, Wave Financial, a US SEC-regulated digital asset management firm, launched a $100 million fund to support new DeFi projects built on the Cardano network, enabling liquidity to pairs of pools and facilitating lending for DeFi lenders.
The NFT market is not left behind as OnePlanet, a Terra-based NFT marketplace and launchpad, launched a $3.35 million fund last week to speed up technological development of features on the platform and the marketing of the service.
