Over twenty blockchain teams and venture funds have teamed up to launch a $50 million Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund “focused on backing and growing new startups that leverage the Wormhole cross-chain messaging protocol.”
The Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund is “being managed and operated by Borderless Capital, a venture capital firm in the Web3 space.”
Backed by various blockchain protocols, infrastructure providers, and institutional investors, the fund aims “to support cross-chain innovations that will drive the growth and adoption of the Web3 industry.”
The Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund is “backed by Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, Aptos Labs, Solana Foundation, Sei Foundation, Algorand Foundation, CLabs (the company behind the Celo Blockchain), the Moonbeam Foundation, Optimism, Circle, MultiCoin GP’s Tushar Jain and Kyle Samani, Arrington Capital, GSR, Floating Point Group, Chainlayer, Chainode Tech, 01Node, Staking Fund, Moonlet.io, Forbole Ventures, Syncnode, Inotel, Triton One, Strangelove, Securitize’s CEO Carlos Domingo, OtterSec among others.”
Navigating the Web3 landscape is “becoming increasingly challenging due to the proliferation of numerous layer-1 blockchains, layer-2 scaling solutions, and specialized appchains with unique purposes and parameters.”
This complexity “poses difficulties for users and alienates developers who are restricted from accessing a single ecosystem, hindering their growth.”
The Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund seeks “to unlock the full potential of a cross-chain future, aiming to redefine users’ experiences and establish Wormhole as the cross-chain standard for builders to transcend the limitations of individual ecosystems.”
This innovation “prioritizes aggregation, security, scalability, compatibility, and composability.”
David Garcia, CEO & Managing Partner of Borderless Capital, said:
“We believe in a borderless Web3 future and are thrilled to have the support of our partners and investors who share our vision. In the same way that in Web2 the value was created through aggregating the relationship with the users we believe that in Web3 this is the natural next step. Our goal is to empower builders to transcend the limitations of individual ecosystems, paving the way for blockchain applications and protocols to realize their full potential.”
Wormhole, the technological focus of the Fund, is “a foundational protocol that enables cross-chain messaging of value and data across more than 23 high-value chains, already leveraged by influential protocols and companies like Uniswap, Circle and Base from Coinbase.”
Dan Reecer, Head of Operations at Wormhole Foundation, said:
“Crypto is still a nascent industry with essentially limitless growth opportunity, and we should be doing nothing but working together, regardless of which specific networks individuals may be more passionate about. It’s really exciting to see so many ecosystems come together with leading venture funds to unite on solving the interoperability challenge by supporting startups that integrate Wormhole’s cross-chain messaging standard.”
Builders, founders and developers “looking to reach across ecosystems can apply to the Cross-Chain Ecosystem fund at wormhole.com/programs.”
Applications will be reviewed by the fund manager, Borderless Capital, starting this month.
