Vessel Capital Launches $55M Fund for Web3 Startups

TechCrunch reported that venture capital firm Vessel Capital has announced a $55 million fund to invest in Web3 infrastructure and applications.

According to the founders, their objective is not to scale but rather to help early-stage crypto startups establish and grow their projects.

Mirza Uddin, one of the co-founders, stated, “Crypto has become more global, so it is not the same circle and group you may have seen in 2018–2020, and we want to be able to help more people.

Uddin is the director of business development at both Vessel and Injective Labs. Eric Chen, CEO of the Injective protocol, and Anthony Anzalone, co-founder of Burnt (formerly Burnt Finance), a Web3 company developing XION, a layer-1 blockchain for consumer adoption, are additional co-founders.

The fund’s resources will be allocated over five years. Uddin believes that their experience as founders of startups makes it easier for Vessel to comprehend the requirements of entrepreneurs.

“Oftentimes, VC giant lack expertise in the things they’re investing in,” he remarked, adding, “The world has enough VCs, but what’s missing is actual guidance and advice. He proceeded:

“Most times you’ll get a nice check, a pretty logo on your website, but other than that VCs don’t help much aside from intros from time to time.“

Vessel’s debut coincides with a decline in crypto-related ventures in June saw a 29.73% decline in investment agreements, with just $779.32 million raised through 62 transactions, according to the Research Venture Capital Database.

Sequoia Capital has recently reduced the size of its cryptocurrency fund from $585 million to $200 million, citing a liquidity shortage and a shift towards smaller crypto firms.

Despite this, Web3 infrastructure remains a favorite investment target. This week, Binance Labs, the company’s venture capital subsidiary, announced a strategic investment in the zero-knowledge WebAssembly (zk-WASM) virtual machine, which supports zero-knowledge proof computation.

“Web3 infrastructure and applications will fundamentally redefine the very fabric of a new Internet economy, leading to a far more innovative, decentralized, and capital-efficient society,” Uddin wrote on LinkedIn.