LeadBlock Bitpanda Ventures (LBV), a €50 million EU investment fund, and Mantle, a burgeoning on-chain ecosystem built around the high-performance modular Ethereum layer-2 (L2) scaling solution Mantle Network and Ether liquid staking protocol Mantle LSP, have announced a strategic collaboration for Europe.
The partnership comes as Mantle Network “aims at boosting user adoption and expanding its footprint in Europe, starting with France.”
Through this partnership, LBV and Mantle “will drive awareness and back founders throughout their entrepreneurial journey in the region.”
David Chreng-Messembourg, Founding Partner of LeadBlock Partners & LeadBlock Bitpanda Ventures, says:
“We have known and worked closely with the Mantle team over the past years. We share similar values, for instance in supporting financially and operationally founders from day 1, all the way to their protocol/product launch. This partnership truly strengthens the ties between our two organisations across the world in general, and Europe in particular.”
As pioneers in the European digital assets landscape, LBV’s mission has “been to democratise access to blockchain technology and support founders early in their journey.”
LBV has been closely “working with domestic players, including corporates, institutions, universities etc.”
Since its creation, LeadBlock valued the importance of “creating a bridge between start-ups and corporates/institutions to bolster blockchain & digital assets adoption.”
Additionally, with its strong footprint in Asia, Mantle will “support LBV in its expansion to the APAC region.”
David Toh, Managing Partner at Mirana Ventures, the operator of Mantle EcoFund, comments:
“The Mantle EcoFund is privileged to have the opportunity to collaborate and invest alongside esteemed funds within the industry. David and the LBV team are widely acknowledged and respected for their extensive network and active investment approach in supporting founders. We are enthusiastic about joining forces with LBV to increase our footprint in Europe.”
The partnership reinforces past collaborative efforts “between LeadBlock Partners and Mantle.”
In July 2023, Mantle catalysed “a $200 million capital pool to be deployed within Mantle Ecosystem over the next three years through the collaborative efforts of Mantle EcoFund and Strategic Venture Partners including LeadBlock Partners, Animoca Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Dragonfly, Hashkey Capital, Pantera, SevenX Ventures, among others.”
LBV has been actively “deploying capital to back top tier founders, and support their growth.”
The fund is increasing its engagement efforts “with domestic developers and founders communities, leveraging its LeadBlock Connect initiative. LeadBlock Connect was created during the 2023 bear market, to unlock access to corporates, institutions and investors for web3 founders.”
With this partnership, a new bridge will be created for LeadBlock Connect to access the resources and opportunities within Mantle Ecosystem.
This includes combined liquidity support of “up to 300M USDx, 250k ETH, 2,000 BTC and 400M MNT, with individual allowance up to 10M USDx, 5k ETH and 20M MNT as per Mantle Governance proposals MIP-28 and MIP-26. Any interested founders, or representatives from corporates and institutions, should reach out to the LBV team.”
In line with this partnership, David Chreng-Messembourg has “joined the newly-launched Mantle Scouts program as a pioneer Scout. The program empowers 15 respected leaders in the industry to support high calibre projects through grants and close mentorship. An initial $1 million in $MNT tokens has been earmarked for the Scouts to kickstart these teams’ growth within Mantle Ecosystem.”