Injective launches $150M ecosystem fund to boost DeFi, Cosmos adoption

Published at: Jan. 25, 2023

Injective, a layer-1 blockchain protocol founded in 2018, has launched a $150 million ecosystem fund to support developers building on the Cosmos network.

The so-called ecosystem group is backed by a large consortium of venture capital and Web3 firms, including Pantera Capital, Kraken Ventures, Jump Crypto, Kucoin Ventures, Delphi Labs, IDG Capital, Gate Labs and Flow Traders. According to Injective, the consortium is the largest assembled within the broader Cosmos ecosystem.

Developers selected for the fund will receive support through “bespoke token and equity investments,” in addition to mentorship, technical assistance, business development and marketing, Injective said. Projects building decentralized finance (DeFI) and interoperability infrastructure will be given the highest priority. Funds have also been earmarked for projects building trading platforms, scalability solutions and proof-of-stake infrastructure.

When asked how funds would be allocated, Injective Labs’ co-founder and CEO Eric Chen told Cointelegraph, “The ecosystem initiative’s approach to allocating funds is to focus on finding the right fit for each project, rather than being too stringent on a set number for funding.” He added:

“[I]n terms of stage, the group is primarily targeting early-stage projects (seed to Series B), but follow-on funding can also be considered on a case-by-case basis. The size of the funding awarded will vary depending on the stage and needs of the project, with the goal of providing the right level of support for each project to succeed.”

Injective, also known as Injective Protocol, is a decentralized smart contracts platform built using Cosmos SDK, a development kit that promotes faster and more cost-effective infrastructure than Ethereum. Chen said Cosmos provides more versatility, customization options and horizontal scalability than other blockchains.

“I don’t think DeFi is meant to attack TradFi. DeFi is supposed to complement TradFi, at least initially," argues @avalabsofficial's @el33th4xor when asked by Cointelegraph's reporter @gazza_jenks at the @wef in Davos. Do you agree about his thoughts on DeFi's purpose? #CTWEF23 pic.twitter.com/BH2VPV2po2

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) January 17, 2023

Cosmos has a market capitalization of roughly $3.7 billion, making it the 20th largest blockchain network, according to CoinMarketCap.

Related: DeFi problems and opportunities in 2023: Market Talks

DeFi entered public discourse in the summer of 2020, with several prominent projects kicking off the crypto bull market shortly after Bitcoin’s quadrennial halvening. Although DeFi activity has slowed over the past year, the sector has been largely immune from the issues plaguing centralized finance, or CeFi, platforms.

“The decentralized nature of DeFi protocols allows for more transparency and true ownership over funds, which will always be a key advantage over centralized finance,” Chen further explained.

Tags
Business
Defi
Funding
Venture Capital
Cosmos
Related Posts
Liquid staking protocol pSTAKE raises $10M from notable cryptocurrency venture capital firms and angel investors
On Tuesday, pSTAKE, a liquid staking protocol from decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Persistence, announced in a statement provided to Cointelegraph that it had closed a $10 million strategic funding round from venture capital firms. Tendermint, the core developer behind the Cosmos network, powers Persistence blockchain with its consensus engine. Liquid staking is the practice of users “double-dipping” with their crypto assets — i.e., allowing them to stake their crypto in one pool and use their staked assets to farm yields in a liquidity provider pool, or vice versa. The process enables higher compounded yields, as assets generate returns in two …
Adoption / Nov. 16, 2021
Stanford researcher-led Pledge raises $3M for decentralized lending protocol
Decentralized lending protocol Pledge has secured $3 million in investments for its cross-chain ecosystem focused on long-term financing, highlighting continued innovation in the DeFi sector. The investment round was led by DHVC, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, with additional participation from U.C. Berkeley Professor Gary LaBlanc and Stanford University community members Ray Wong and Torsten Wendl. The raise will support Pledge's mission to become a premier crypto-asset lending platform that eventually paves the way for tokenized real-world financial assets. Pledge was created by a group of blockchain-focused researchers at Stanford University, including Professor David Tse, Nicole Chang, Ray Wong …
Business / Sept. 11, 2021
DeFi on Solana: Solrise raises $3.4M for non-custodial asset management
Solrise Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol for the Solana network, has successfully concluded a $3.4-million raise for its non-custodial asset management platform, offering further evidence that the venture capital world continues to seek broad exposure to the digital asset market. Some of the biggest venture capital names in blockchain supported the Solrise funding round, including Alameda Ventures, Delphi Digital and CMS Ventures. Jump Capital, ParaFi Capital, DeFi Alliance, Reciprocal Ventures and SkyVision Capital rounded out the participants. The capital raise will go toward making DeFi more accessible to a wider class of investors, Solrise announced Tuesday. This includes reducing …
Business / July 6, 2021
Report: ICO Fundraising Plummeted 95% Year-Over-Year in 2019
A report published by research firm CB Insights has found that equity funding has dramatically overtaken initial coin offerings (ICOs) as the dominant means of finance in the blockchain space. While the largely unregulated ICO boom of 2018 raised $7.8 billion, initial coin offering funding fell more than 95% to raise $371 million in 2019. By contrast, equity funding raised $2.8 billion last year. The report also notes the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi), noting that there are currently more than $1 billion in assets on DeFi platforms — up from $300 million as of January 2019. Crypto firms are …
Decentralization / March 23, 2020
Binance VC arm leads $60M round in cross-chain protocol Multichain
Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance cryptocurrency exchange, has led a financing round for the cross-chain protocol Multichain, previously known as Anyswap. Shortly after rebranding from Anyswap last week, Multichain has raised $60 million in a seed funding round led by Binance Labs, the firm officially announced on Dec. 21. Other participants in the raise included major VC firms and industry investors like Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Primitive Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Circle Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, HashKey and Magic Ventures. Apart from providing capital investment for Multichain, Binance is also building a stronger relationship …
Business / Dec. 21, 2021