Vessel Capital, a venture capital firm, has unveiled a $55 million fund dedicated to investing in Web3 infrastructure and applications, according to a report by TechCrunch. The fund's founders emphasize that their objective is not just to scale but to support early-stage startup c cryptocurrency founders in launching and growing their projects.
Mirza Uddin, one of the co-founders and also the Director of Business Development for Injective Labs, highlighted the global nature of the current cryptocurrency landscape, which is different from the previous years, and expressed their desire to assist more people. The team behind Vessel Capital includes Eric Chen, CEO of Injective Protocol, and Anthony Anzalone, co-founder of Burnt (formerly Burnt Finance), which focuses on Web3 and is building XION, a layer 1 blockchain for consumer adoption.
Over the course of five years, the fund's resources will be deployed. Uddin believes that the experience of the team as startup founders has given Vessel a deeper understanding of the needs of entrepreneurs. He emphasized the lack of practical guidance and advice from many venture capital lists , stating that beyond occasional introductions, they often don't offer significant assistance to startups.
This announcement from Vessel Capital comes at a time of decreased venture capital activity in the cryptocurrency space. Data showed a 29.73% decrease in investment deals in June, with only 62 deals raising a total of $779.32 million. Notably, venture capital giant Sequoia Capital recently reduced the size of its cryptocurrency fund from $585 million to $200 million, citing liquidity issues and a shift to smaller cryptocurrency companies.
Despite the overall decrease in investment activity, there remains strong interest in Web3 infrastructure. For instance, Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of Binance, recently announced a strategic investment in Delphinus Lab's zero-knowledge WebAssembly virtual machine, which s supports zero-knowledge proof computation. Mirza Uddin highlighted the potential of Web3 infrastructure and applications to redefine the structure of the new internet economy, fostering innovation, decentralization, and increased capital efficiency.
