A group of former executives from cryptocurrency exchange Binance has launched a $100 million venture fund focused on the metaverse and cryptocurrency proliferation in emerging markets, Tech Crunch reported Thursday.
- Old Fashion Research was founded by Ling Zhang and Wayne Fu, who were previously vice president of M&A and head of corporate development at Binance, respectively.
- The fund, which was backed by traditional venture capital funds, family offices and angel investors, will focus on the metaverse and crypto adoption in emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa.
- "We are very focused on the Southern Hemisphere," Zhang said. "We will tackle all emerging markets, but our goal and vision is to accelerate adoption there."
- The fund has already invested in more than 50 blockchain projects, including blockchain analytics platform Nansen, trading platform WOO Network and African gaming community Metaverse Magna.
- Old Fashion Research could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.
- Despite the troubling conditions that have prevailed in crypto markets in recent weeks and months, venture capital does not appear to have been unduly spooked. This week, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) launched its fourth fund to invest in crypto companies worth $4.5 billion, more than double the amount of its third fund, which was launched nearly a year ago.