VanEck, a global investment firm managing $115 billion in assets, has recently announced the launch of VanEck Ventures, a $30 million early-stage fund that will focus on supporting fintech, digital assets, and artificial intelligence startups.
The fund, led by former Circle Ventures heads Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, aims to back 25 to 35 startups at the pre-seed and seed stages. Each selected project will receive an investment amount ranging from $500,000 to $1 million. Lonergan and Lopez bring a wealth of experience from their time at Circle, where they successfully invested over $50 million in similar ventures.
This strategic move by VanEck marks its deeper dive into venture capital, building on its history of transformative investments, such as gold in 1968 and Bitcoin in 2017. With a focus on transformative technologies, the fund will primarily invest in companies operating at the application layer. These companies are working on tokenized assets, digital financial marketplaces, and next-generation payment systems that utilize technologies like stablecoins and blockchain.
For those who may not be familiar with the terminology, digital assets are tokenized forms of value, including cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, stablecoins are digital currencies pegged to traditional currencies to reduce volatility. VanEck Ventures sees these innovations as crucial for the future of financial services, enabling faster and more efficient transactions without the need for traditional banks.
VanEck Ventures has already made four undisclosed investments and plans to expand its portfolio further in the fields of fintech, crypto, and AI. The fund is betting on the potential of these technologies to revolutionize the financial industry and drive the next phase of innovation.
Overall, VanEck Ventures’ $30 million fund represents a significant commitment to supporting early-stage startups in the fintech, digital assets, and artificial intelligence sectors. With its experienced leadership team and strategic focus on transformative technologies, the fund is well-positioned to identify and back promising ventures that offer both financial returns and strategic value in the evolving landscape of digital finance.