Tag: Master Ventures

Master Ventures, a $1bln Asia-based Blockchain incubator & private venture capital firm, today announced that it had launched a $30mm Venture capital fund, Master Ventures Polkadot VC Fund. The first ever of its kind, the fund will support and finance the Parachain bids of Tier 1 Blockchain / cryptocurrency projects seeking to win a Parachain slot on the Polkadot Relay Chain and will also fund early-stage investments in projects in the rapidly evolving Polkadot & Kusama ecosystem.

Polkadot and Kusama are on track to launch over 50 Parachains (2nd layer chains) over the next 18 months.  These Parachain slots will be auctioned off to the highest-bidder and these projects must hold DOT or KSM depending on which protocol they intend to leverage.  Ecosystem projects, second layer solutions such as DeFi apps & NFTs, will compete for Parachain lease rights via a candle auction system and the project that has committed the most DOT/KSM will win Parachain lease rights.  To incentivize community support towards a parachain bid, projects will issue their native tokens in exchange for a DOT Crowdloan.  This process is the Polkadot alternative to an ICO/IDO and projects’ native tokens will be “airdropped” to the DOT lenders (KSM for Kusama lenders).

Master Ventures intends to capture significant upside opportunity by funding the Parachain bids as well as investing directly into the most promising projects in the evolving Polkadot/Kusama ecosystem.

Kyle Chasse, Founder & CEO of Master Ventures states, “As a supporter of Blockchain & Cryptocurrency since 2012, we’ve evaluated over 1000 projects and invested in nearly 100 of these, many of which have committed to develop on Polkadot.  In our current portfolio of incubated projects led by the PAID Network, we’ve also committed significant research & development resources to build on Polkadot.  As such, we’ve gained amazing proprietary knowledge and insight into the current progress and future evolution of both projects and we believe Polkadot will be one of the clear long-term winning blockchains and ecosystems due to its cross-chain functionality, ease of development & deployment as well as the strength of its development community.”

Orion Depp, Managing Partner of Master Ventures Investment Management states, “Parachain winners such as Acala, Phala, & Litentry, could represent the next Compound, Maker, and  Zcash, on Polkadot’s next generation platform.  In addition to capturing significant upside opportunity via funding Parachain bids, we intend to fund leading early-stage investments in the DOT ecosystem and believe we can add significant strategic value to these projects.  We have the largest influencer reach in all of crypto, and deep experience in Tokenomics, marketing, and talent acquisition and team-building.  Lastly, we own Ignition, the #1 Initial Dex Offering (IDO) platform in all of crypto, through which we can aid our investment projects and their founders to raise additional capital and execute their long-term exit strategy.”