Venture capital firm Cypher Capital launched one of the largest seed funds in the MENA region (countries in the Middle East and North Africa). The $100 million fund will target DeFi, GameFi, and metaverse projects.
The UAE-based company focuses on taking a holistic approach to create an ecosystem for blockchain-related projects to succeed.
Bijan Alizadeh, founder and GP at Cypher Capital, stated in a press release:
“We are very proud and honored to be launching our first and the biggest crypto, digital asset and blockchain private seed fund from the UAE and the Middle East Region.”
Cypher Capital believes that collaborating with other private venture firms will help to perfect the blockchain ecosystem. This belief is reflected in Cypher’s latest $1.5 million investment made to Crypto Oasis Sentio.
“We aim to cooperate with and expand the ecosystem by working with visionary innovators, outstanding talent and other venture capital partners to create a holistic blockchain community with will in turn, foster the growth of the ecosystem,”
Alizadeh commented.
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Cypher Capital aims to invest 40% of it in Indian cryptocurrency and blockchain startups.
Cypher Capital has made investments in fifteen Indian blockchain startups like SolRazr and Safle. While SolRazr is a new Solana-based decentralised platform, Safle offers storing digital identities and over 500 digital assets, protected using a master key.
There is a reason the firm has reserved a $40 million seed fund for Indian startups – India has over 100 million cryptocurrency users, and despite the regulatory uncertainty and adverse comments, Cypher Capital’s Vineet Budki is confident that the policies will normalise over time.
And it’s not just Cypher Capital that is bullish on the Indian market – in 2021 alone, Indian cryptocurrency and blockchain startups saw funding worth $638 million, according to industry tracker Tracxn. This includes some big names like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia India, Kalaari Capital and Antler India.
“India with its 100 million crypto users is the next big market for cryptocurrency adoption and we believe in educating people on the use cases like DeFi (Decentralised Finance) lending and borrowing, play to earn, etc., and handholding blockchain startups to build valuable companies,” said Vineet Budki, managing partner of Cypher Capital.
Alizadeh is a renowned crypto investor – he was a part of successful start-up projects, such as ACDX, Graph, Casper, Near Protocol, and Skale.