Ian Wittkopp and Inal Kardan have founded TON Ventures, a $40 million Venture Capital that will Capital in startups on the TON blockchain.
The Open Network has a new ecosystem development fund TON Ventures worth 40 million USD
Ian Wittkopp and Inal Kardan, two former members of the TON Foundation - the organization behind The Open Network blockchain with the Toncoin (TON) cryptocurrency - have successfully raised $40 million to launch the TON Ventures Venture Capital , aiming to Capital in startups building on the TON blockchain.
The two co-founders of TON Ventures said the Capital process started a month ago “informally”. The $40 million fund could expand if more partners join later.
Ian Wittkopp and Inal Kardan previously served as Director of TON Accelerator and Head of Gaming at the TON Foundation. Prior to joining the TON Foundation, Wittkopp served as Managing Director and Head of Investment at Ryze Labs (formerly Sino Global Capital) .
Wittkopp declined to disclose the identities of the investors, but said they were mostly individual investors who wanted to support the long-term development of the TON ecosystem.
"The Open Network Ventures ( @TON_Ventures ), a new venture capital (VC) firm, has officially launched a $40 million fund to support early-stage crypto projects within #TON ecosystem." 💎
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) August 14, 2024
Via @Cointelegraph ⬇️ https://t.co/ir0G5ctAYk
TON Ventures aims to invest in early-stage startups on the TON ecosystem. Wittkopp believes that the first wave of adoption of Telegram and the TON blockchain will create “billion-dollar companies.”
Wittkopp said products that combine Web3 and social graph ( SocialFi ) using the TON and Telegram blockchains have the potential to “become legitimate competitors to existing giants in areas like remittances and will achieve breakthroughs in banking for all segments” within the next 3-5 years.
"We will invest in applications in the fields of DeFi, games, advertising/marketing, financial products, tools to support the development and monetization process for applications on the TON ecosystem with the aim of making the network more seamless and high-quality".
According to the company’s website , TON Ventures has backed more than a dozen startups, including Catizen ,Gamee , and TonUP, with the fund’s Medium investment size being around $500,000 per project at the early stages. The fund will also participate in “strategic” later-stage deals, such as large transactions involving protocols entering the TON ecosystem. Terms and investment sizes for later-stage deals will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
TON Ventures co-founder expects the $40 million funding fund to be fully deployed within a year “due to the strong interest from the top (Tier 1) developers we have met,” Wittkopp Chia .
TON Ventures' portfolio is displayed on the homepage. Photo taken on the evening of August 14, 2024
The TON ecosystem has recently attracted the attention of venture funds, most notably Pantera Capital , which expressed its desire to set up a second investment fund in the system after an undisclosed Capital earlier . With nearly 900 million monthly active users, mainly due to the unique integration of the TON blockchain with messaging giant Telegram, it is considered the biggest advantage of the TON ecosystem.
Games that have been attracting large numbers of players recently through Tap-to-Earn mechanics such as Notcoin , Hamster Kombat , PixelTap , BeraSig , HashKey's DejenDog ... all built on the TON blockchain and accessible through Telegram as mini-apps, have attracted strong interest despite possible concerns about the presence of bots .
The TON blockchain has evolved into a vibrant Web3 ecosystem, with momentum coming from the $115 million Open League ecosystem development fund announced in late March.
At the time of writing, TON price is hovering around $7, up 10.4% in the last 24 hours, boosted by many news in the past month such as becoming the 56th Binance Launchpool , Mocaverse cooperating with TON Foundation to set up a $20 million fund to encourage the ecosystem , and releasing layer-2 in conjunction with Polygon .
1-hour chart of TON/ USDT trading pair on Binance at 08:00 PM on August 14, 2024
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