Waves Platform launches new $30m venture fund to invest in blockchain start ups

Blockchain platform Waves is launching a venture fund and aims to raise $30m by April.

The Basics Fund is seeking an initial $10m investment next month, with an additional $20m following.

The vehicle will focus solely on investing in blockchain infrastructure and aims to combine venture capital funds and hedge funds to deploy capital into new start up projects.

It hopes to build a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrency assets and pre-sale ICO tokens as well as arbitrage and event-oriented trading.

The investment fund will be managed by experienced hedge fund managers, key members of the Waves team and Waves CEO Alexander Ivanov.

The managers expect the fund to grow projects tenfold over a two or three year period and will invest using blockchain solutions.

Ivanov said, “As the most enterprise-ready blockchain platform in the world, it is important that Waves is at the forefront of every aspect of the emerging crypto economy. That means technological excellence, but it also means shaping the regulatory landscape and actively furthering use cases for every sector.

“In this instance, we are very proud to be partnering with experts from the asset management industry and launching a new blockchain fund for mainstream investors, which will pioneer best practices and showcase the strength of blockchain technology to a new market.”

The fund aims to differ from typical venture capital vehicles, and will offer fast transactions at low costs and exits within a two month period.

The launch of the vehicle comes amid a blockchain and cryptocurrency investment surge. This year investments in the space have nearly tripled, with companies in the sector receiving $1.4bn in the first three quarters of 2017, more than double the amount invested in 2016.

Copyright © 2017 FinTech Global

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