VanEck Ventures, a $30 million fund that invests in early-stage companies in fintech, cryptocurrency, and AI, has been publicly started by VanEck. The goal of this new project is to encourage new ideas in the payment world and help startups as they grow.
The VanEck Ventures fund will put its money into a number of different areas, such as financial markets, stablecoin-based payment systems, and tokenized assets. The company wants to make 25 to 35 deals, and each investor will put in between $500k and $1 million.
Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, who used to work together at Circle Ventures, are in charge at VanEck Ventures. They were good at investing more than $50 million in early-stage companies in a wide range of areas, from infrastructure to consumer apps, while they were at Circle.
Lonergan thinks that stablecoin projects are very important right now because they could be used as a “open-source banking layer.” Lopez agreed and said that stablecoins have made it possible to store and send large amounts of value, which has led to big improvements in programmed financial services.
The fund has already made four investments that have not been made public, which shows that it is ready to help startups that have a lot of potential. A large chunk of the fund’s capital comes from outside buyers. VanEck provides the rest of the capital.
Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck, talked about the company’s long history of finding transformative investment opportunities. He said that this fund brings that vision to early-stage businesses. He was excited about helping the founders of companies that were going to change the way money is handled.
To sum up, VanEck Ventures is a smart move for the company into venture capital, which fits with its dedication to new ideas in AI, bitcoin, and financial technology. VanEck wants to help the financial system change by investing in new companies in these areas. They also want to help create new technology solutions.