Traditional funding in the crypto space was once considered useless. After all, the industry itself offers different, controversial, but nonetheless, ways to fund a project – initial coin offering (ICO), initial exchange offering (IEO) and the current darlings of offerings – launchpads and initial decentralized exchange (DEX) offerings.
But with the industry maturing and more startups wanting not only the capital but mentorship to build a working and valuable product, venture capital has emerged as one of the most attractive options. Cointelegraph talked to Li Rongbin, founding partner of SevenX, about why venture capital funding is the next big thing for crypto startups and entrepreneurs.
Tell us about your fund.
Our company, SevenX Ventures, was launched at the beginning of 2020, so we are a relatively young brand. But all of our three founding partners have around six years of experience in crypto VC. We are one of the earliest VCs to invest in DeFi and NFTs in China. We’ve backed such DeFi projects like Dodo, Zerion, Debank, Furucombo, Daomaker, Vega, etc., and NFT-related projects, including YGG, Alchemy NFT, Rangers, and Whale, etc.
Before SevenX, we’ve separately had our own crypto venture funds, based in Beijing and Shanghai, which were early investors of some great projects, including Huobi, Tron, NEO and others. We decided to merge into one because we want to really gather our experience and knowledge to better deliver value to our portfolios.
Why do you think the crypto industry needs corporate investment, given that there are many options to fund a project like ICO and IDO, for instance?
We believe in decentralization and really think that a decentralized way of fundraising is cool and helpful. Such kind of fundraising will bring users, publicity and community. But VCs are experienced and have great connections and resources in the industry, which are good for bootstrapping,
There is a debate around whether to take VCs’ funds as an…
