CoinSwitch Ventures’ Web3 Discovery fund deploys $25 million through VC partners

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CoinSwitch Ventures’ Web3 Discovery Fund, the venture capital arm of crypto unicorn CoinSwitch, announced that it has facilitated $25 million in funding across 12 web3 and blockchain startups in less than a year of its launch, showing signs of optimism around the nascent web3 space even as globally, businesses are trimming tech budgets.

The startups that have raised this funding include PYOR, Silence Labs, AirStack, Mohash, Shield, PolyTrade, BitsCrunch, and PlayZap. They were building solutions around blockchain infrastructure, blockchain analytics, and real-world asset tokenization. In fact, PYOR was founded by former CoinSwitch employees CBO Sharan Nair, CFO Sarmad Nazki, SVP Krishna Hegde, and blockchain developer Yadunandan Batchu.

While Web3 Discovery fund partially funded these startups, the majority of it was funded through its partnering network of prominent VCs like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

In an earlier interaction with Moneycontrol, Ashish Singhal, Co-Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch had said that he plans to invest in about 100 such startups by the end of 2024. The early-stage fund will be looking to write cheques of about $100,000-$200,000 and work as a bridge to introduce these start-ups and fund jointly in larger rounds along with its 20 VC (venture capital) partners.

Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead, CoinSwitch Ventures said in a statement, “With the Discovery fund, we are identifying and enabling entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to leverage the potential of crypto to solve real-world problems. Even in the bear market, we have seen a huge influx of innovative startup ideas.

Singhal added, “Our fund's philosophy was born out of the challenges we faced while setting up CoinSwitch. The roadblock then led us to establish a fund that not only provides funds but also expertise and networking opportunities.”