Quick take:
- Cherry Ventures has launched its Web3 campaign with a $34 million crypto fund.
- The EU-based venture capital firm said although the fund is targeting opportunities globally, it will focus on European projects.
- Patrick Mayr, an investor on the Cherry crypto team said the fund will also explore opportunities in NFTs.
Germany-based venture capital firm Cherry Ventures is launching its Web3 campaign after setting up a $34 million crypto fund. The fund, which Cherry has named Cherry Crypto 1, is the company’s first major foray into the digital assets space.
However, Cherry participated in a seed round for NFT startup Unlock Protocol in 2018, its only other notable involvement in the crypto space before setting up Cherry Crypto 1.
Patrick Mayr, an investor on the Cherry crypto team thinks that Europe is lagging the rest of the developed world in the digital assets space despite the industry having deep roots in the region.
Pointing out the fact Ethereum was launched in Germany, Mayr told The Block that European entrepreneurs have only started to take the industry more seriously last year.
“It was only really in the last twelve months that you’ve seen an influx of European crypto founders — it’s like a waterfall of crypto entrepreneurs at the moment,” he said.
Cherry Crypto 1 has a strong team behind it including “former Aragon CTO Brett Sun, who’s joining in a research role, MakerDAO’s Luca Prosperi as an advisor, while former Medwing director Yannis Heykin will be in charge of finance.
The fund targets opportunities globally but wants to focus on the untapped European market. So, far, Cherry Crypto 1 has already invested in the “staking platform Lido, lending protocol optimizer Morpho and NFT investment Decentralized Autonomous Organisation (DAO) BlackPool.”
Cherry Ventures said the fund will prioritise offering financial backing to crypto founders through token-based investments over equity.
Asked if Cherry Crypto has any plans for NFTs, Mayr said Cherry was exploring opportunities in the highly exciting space, having already set up the infrastructure needed to invest.
Mayr also stressed the importance of DAOs in the new age of Web3. DAOs grant users the opportunity to influence decision making in an organization by voting using tokens issued by the company.
Highlighting the nascent state of DAOs and Web3, Mayr said “I think that it’s definitely the role of an investor to help shape what governance of these protocols look like.”
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