Animoca backs $70m round of 🇹🇼 VC firm’s maiden Web3 fund

Taiwan-based Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC) has raised US$70 million for its maiden fund to boost the growth of global play-to-earn (P2E) games, as well as decentralized finance and Web3 projects in Asia.

Brian Lu, founding partner at Infinity Ventures Crypto / Photo credit: Infinity Ventures Crypto

Investors including Circle, Digital Currency Group, and Animoca Brands took part in the financing.

Since August 2021, IVC has invested in startups like Yield Guild Games (YGG) and the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC, though the fund’s limited partners have invested in crypto assets as early as 2015. To date, IVC has backed 78 portfolio companies.

“As a bridge between the east and west, we take a boots-on-the-ground approach by assembling teams of local experts to stoke the growth of our portfolio comtpanies,” said IVC partner Brian Lu.

The fund’s first investment was in YGG, the Philippines-based P2E gaming guild and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that invests in NFTs. IVC and YGG have teamed up to build their first sub-DAO, YGG SEA, which will support firms in Southeast Asia.

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“Aligning with IVC’s vision to help the unbanked and the underbanked, these games provide an additional income stream to players during the pandemic,” Lu added.

IVC’s partners include Akio Tanaka, founder of Headline Asia; Herbie Fu, former partner at 8 Decimal Capital; JT Law, co-founder of VerifyInvestor; Alex Yeh, co-founder of AuraBlock Ventures; and Richie Chaval Jiaravanon, former CEO of Snapask Thailand.