Stephanie Douse 
Uniswap Labs, the organization behind the decentralized finance (DeFi) system in an announcement has launched its venture capital arm for Web3 projects.
The investment vertical of Uniswap Labs Ventures intends to invest in various phases of web3 projects. According to the group, it would examine all initiatives, from infrastructure to developer tools to consumer-facing applications.
Uniswap also remarked, “As a crypto-native studio with deep knowledge of the space, we are uniquely capable of supporting our portfolio companies as they scale their operations.”
In addition to that, the VC arm “will actively participate in on and off-chain governance.” With that, the team specified that they already participate in the governance systems of MakerDAO, Aave, Compound, and Ethereum Name Service protocols. All in all, Uniswap Labs has invested in 11 companies so far and a few other Web3 native protocols, as per the release.
Uniswap Labs is entering the Web3 VC arena, which has expanded in recent years.
According to Crunchbase, 200 venture capital deals worth approximately $4 billion were closed in the first two months of 2022. This represents 22% of the total witnessed in the entire year of 2021, which was a spectacular record-breaking year.
Meanwhile, Teo Leibowitz has been named as the Ventures Lead at Uniswap Labs. The funding vertical will be led by Leibowitz and MC Lader, the Chief Operating Officer. According to Leibowitz’s statement to The Block, all VC investments will be made directly from the Uniswap Labs balance sheet.
As a result, the new business is also surrounded by existing criticism. There is an ongoing argument about whether Web3 investment arms have gained an unfair edge in a supposedly “decentralized” space.