VanEck to Invest in Early Stage Ventures Including Crypto With New $30M Fund

• VanEck is unveiling a fresh $30 million fund focused on investments in fintech, digital asset or AI firms in pre-seed or seed stages.
• About 25-30 different projects will be picked and can receive funding anywhere between $500,000 and $1 million.
• One of the areas VanEck is interested to invest in through the fund is tokenization.

Global investment management firm VanEck is expanding its venture capital presence with the launch of a new fund focused on fintech, digital asset or artificial intelligence (AI) companies in pre-seed or seed stages, it announced Wednesday.

VanEck Ventures, with $30 million in assets under management (AUM), marks a strategic expansion for the firm into the venture capital space, it said in a press release. It will be led by Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, who both previously led Circle Ventures, the venture arm of stablecoin issuer Circle.

The $30 million will be given to 25-30 different projects with investments for each ranging from $500,000 to $1 million, and will focus on companies that offer both strategic and financial upside. It has already invested in four different projects.

“From pioneering an approach to gold investing in 1968 to recognizing the disruptive potential of Bitcoin in 2017, embracing a long-term view on transformative opportunities has always been part of our investment philosophy. This fund extends that vision into the early-stage venture space,” said Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck. “We look forward to supporting founders of what we believe are some of the most disruptive companies in fintech – those building the future of finance.”

The fund is particularly looking for projects that are building at the application layer while maintaining an infrastructure-agnostic approach, such as tokenized assets, internet native financial marketplaces, and next-generation payments middleware and applications building on top of stablecoins, VanEck said.

The 69-year-old asset manager, who has a history of identifying emerging investment trends, has big plans in the digital asset space that go beyond its offerings of several crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In an interview with CoinDesk in March, VanEck Portfolio Manager Pranav Kanade said that the firm’s CEO would like 15% of the firm’s AUM to be in crypto, as opposed to roughly 1% that it currently stands at.