Singapore-based blockchain platform Zilliqa announced on Thursday the launch of a strategic annual investment fund to invest up to $5 million in 15 companies building on its platform.
The investment will be funnelled through the ZILHive Incubator and ZILHive Ventures initiatives of Zilliqa’s ecosystem growth arm ZILHive. These two initiatives serve to supplement the $5 million already committed to grants, accelerators, and education initiatives in 2018, ZILHive said.
“ZILHive has always had big ambitions: to drive more open and inclusive finance and commerce gateways for communities and companies worldwide, and power the Web 3.0 era.
We have now doubled our investment into high potential startups and initiatives in service this goal: guiding entrepreneurs from right from the drawing board, seeding and nurturing them to become not merely a blockchain success story, but provide truly useful applications for people,” Zilliqa senior vice president of Ecosystem Development Han Wen Chua said.
Aimed at budding tech talent and entrepreneurs, the ZILHive Incubator is a 14-week programme that looks to match the developers and industry professionals as they build innovative blockchain solutions on the Zilliqa protocol.
Selected participants will have the opportunity to showcase their projects to potential investors and industry partners at Zilliqa’s annual town hall event in August this year.
Meanwhile, to support more mature projects, ZILHive Ventures will look to focus on developing projects that are built using the Zilliqa protocol. The $5 million fund will invest between $50,000 to $500,000 into promising companies in exchange for equity, tokens, or a combination of both.
The fund aims to invest in 15 companies annually from around the world. The best projects hoping to further scale and seeking growth capital for expansion will be referred to Zilliqa Capital, the recently launched central business and investment hub aimed at investing in decentralised and fintech solutions to grow Southeast Asia’s fintech and emerging tech ecosystem.
Founded in 2017, Zilliqa is a high-performance, high-security blockchain platform for enterprises and next generation applications. Zilliqa addresses limitations in scalability and security, enabling real-world usability across a variety of industries, including finance, digital advertising, and gaming.
Source Deal Street Asia