thecoinrise.com
A new venture capital fund known as Lingfeng Innovation Fund (LIF) has secured $20 million in a fundraiser targeted at equipping crypto startups.
The LIP fund which is backed by Nicole Zhang, a former executive at Binance Labs, is related to Beijing-based financial technology investment firm Lingfeng Capital. Markedly, Zhang also sits as a founding partner of the LIF fund.
The fund is focused on easing the transition of Web2 crypto startups to the Web3.0 ecosystem, especially for those undertaking early-stage projects, from pre-seed to Series A stages, with a broad geographical scope. Putting it in perspective, the Binance former employee said the core focus of the fund is “enabling web2 elites with web3 expertise.”
According to Zhang, this realized fund is only the first close of the intended capital. Ultimately, the LIF fund is bent on generating a total of $30 million at th final close of the fundraiser. Most of the time, Zhang leads such fundraising projects and due diligence on deals.
LIF is Independent of Lingfeng Capital
So far, the LIF fund has made up to ten investments including those who are co-investing with a few other Binance Labs executives. Firms that fall in this category are ApolloX, ZetaChain, and Ultiverse amongst others.
Nicole Zhang use to be an executive director at the venture arm of crypto behemoth Binance for two years until she left in May. Now, Zhang leads the LIF fund alongside two Lingfeng Capital founding partners Ning Ma and Ming Shu.
Leveraging the Lingfeng Capital connection, the LIF currently possesses a Capital Markets Services Licence in Singapore. Despite the connections in personnel and permission, Zhang clarified that LIF has its own group of limited partners.
A few of these partners are industry heavyweights and well-known entrepreneurs like crypto security firm CertiK and Singapore-based family office Kamet Capital Partners amongst others. Many Web3.0 funds have launched recently amidst the ongoing crypto winter.
In June, Binance Labs introduced a $500 million investment fund for Web3.0.
Then in July, blockchain-based investment start-up Konvoy Ventures launched a $150 million fund. Followed closely by an early-stage crypto investment firm Variant which raised $450 million across two investment funds.