Variant Raise $450M Fund III For Web3.0 And DeFi Amid Crypto Winter

Early-stage crypto investment firm, Variant has started a $450 million round across two venture funds. 

According to a Thursday announcement, the first venture fund which yielded $300 million is credited as an opportunity fund while the second ($150 million) is targeted toward early startup Web3.0 projects. Variant wishes to utilize for penetrating Web3.0 and decentralized finance (DeFi). 

The funding round was co-led by Li Jin, Jesse Walden, and Spencer Noon all co-founders and general partners at Variant. These co-founders are Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) veterans. With the assistance of these same partners, Variant closed its first round in 2020 securing $22.5 million. Then its second fund came in 2021 just after its merger with Atelier Ventures, the sum of $110 million was generated in this round. 

To accommodate the envisaged growth which will accompany the fund, Variant has expanded its workforce to 15 team members. Then it boarded professionals are experts in the field of DeFi, consumer, and infrastructure. The funds will be targeted toward empowering users “founders” via decentralized finance, Web3.0 consumer applications, blockchain computing, and modern forms of decentralized ownership.  

Not only will the fund be used to empower founders, but it will also be utilized in building an information structure that will help guide and support users. Investors will be equipped with advice on what market to enter, ideas on token design, and provided connections to crypto communities. Fund III is totally user-centered.

Web3.0 Receives More User-Friendly Funds

Variant Is holding on to its vision which is to be the network that defines the next generation of the internet which will turn users into owners. 

Speaking of funding rounds that are users-oriented, a few months ago, leading cryptocurrency exchange, KuCoin announced the close of a $100 million fund dedicated to content creators in Web3.0. The fund was instigated by the exchange’s venture capital arm KuCoin Ventures and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, Windvane. The fund was aimed toward the advancement of the Web3.0 space.

With Variant’s Fund III, the crypto investment firm has several core targets to explore. First, is financial empowerment through DeFi, then expansion of the layer cake of blockchain computing. Exploration of a new frontier of web3 consumer and provision of user experiences defined by new forms of ownership are also part of these targets.