Quick take:
- Borderless Capital has launched a $50 million ecosystem fund on Wormhole.
- The fund attracted backing from 20 blockchain teams and venture funds.
- The fund is targeting startups that look to leverage Wormhole’s cross-chain messaging protocol.
Twenty web3 companies and venture funds have teamed up to launch a $50 million cross-chain ecosystem fund. The fund will be used to support startups leveraging the cross-chain bridging protocol Wormhole.
Leading layer 1 blockchain companies backing the fund include Aptos Labs, Algorand Foundation, Solana Foundation, Sei Foundation, CLabs (the company behind the Celo Blockchain), the Moonbeam Foundation, and Optimism.
Polygon Ventures, a leading layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum is also backing the fund, while notable web3 venture funds involved include Jump Crypto, Arrington Capital, GSR, Floating Point Group, Chainlayer, Chainode Tech, 01Node, Staking Fund, Moonlet.io, Forbole Ventures, Syncnode, Inotel, Triton One, and Strangelove.
MultiCoin GP’s Tushar Jain and Kyle Samani and Securitize’s CEO Carlos Domingo are also part of the group.
The fund will be managed and operated by Borderless Capital, a web3 venture capital firm that has raised $850 million across multiple rounds.
In a press statement published Thursday, the companies said the $50 million cross-chain ecosystem fund will be used to stimulate growth and accelerate the adoption of web3.
Commenting on the announcement, David Garcia, CEO of Borderless Capital said: “We believe in a borderless Web3 future and are thrilled to have the support of our partners and investors who share our vision. In the same way that in Web2 the value was created through aggregating the relationship with the users we believe that in Web3 this is the natural next step.”
According to Garcia, the fund’s primary purpose is to provide builders with an ecosystem that helps them to overcome the shortcomings of building in individual ecosystems. “[This] is the way for blockchain applications and protocols to realize their full potential,” he said.
Wormhole is a cross-chain messaging protocol that enables different blockchains to securely exchange data and information. The protocol already boasts 23 high-value chains and has already onboarded protocols and companies like Uniswap, Circle and Base from Coinbase.
Dan Reecer, head of operations at Wormhole Foundation commented: “Crypto is still a nascent industry with essentially limitless growth opportunity, and we should be doing nothing but working together, regardless of which specific networks individuals may be more passionate about.”
Reecer also lauded the effort shown by the multiple blockchains and web3 VCs to team up together to solve one of the blockchain industry’s biggest challenges, interoperability.
Web3 builders and blockchain infrastructure developers can apply for the cross-chain ecosystem fund via wormhole.com/programs, with Borderless Capital set to review applications starting this month.
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