Near Foundation Launches $100M Venture Fund, Seeks to Invest in Culture and Web3
Switzerland-based non-profit foundation Near Foundation has announced a $100M venture fund alongside a venture lab.
Founders of the NEAR Protocol have announced the launch of a $100 million venture fund and a venture lab. The seed fundraiser was launched in collaboration with Caerus Ventures, and it will have an initial closing of $50M. The fundraising targets $100M for seed to Series A investments.
Aims of the Venture Fund
Nathan Pillai, the CEO of IMG/Endeavor, the parent company of Caerus Ventures, has said the company would major in emerging Web3 startups that are involved in entertainment and culture. Pillai was the vice president of SaliGP, which sold a minority stake to Endeavor in 2020; the company opened its metaverse headquarters in Decentraland in March.
He further commented,
“We’re yet to imagine many use cases for how Web3 technologies will change how culture is experienced, entertainment is consumed, and value is distributed. And that was the genesis of Caerus: to be a catalyst for innovation that unleashes projects in sport, music, film, TV, fashion, art and gaming which offer greater equity for all.”
The venture lab will provide financial and functional support to portfolio companies that develop products around talent and IP. The CEO of NEAR Foundation, Marieke Flament, equally stated,
“Our cultural passions for live sport, film or music have historically been leveraged to on-ramp billions of consumers to new technologies. The creators, talent, and franchises with reach and influence spearheaded that growth and will now drive the adoption of blockchain at scale. But this time, they and their fans will have greater access to the value created.”
Commenting on the partnership, Nathan Pillai said,
“I’ve been hugely impressed by NEAR’s value proposition for developers and users, but more importantly, their mission to empower creators and consumers of culture with more control over their assets. So we’re creating this partnership to help revolutionize the existing multi-layered entertainment ecosystems, growing the market size while promoting greater equity.”