Axelar, a software company angling to be become the “Stripe” of Web3, has recruited a range of investors for a $60m initiative that will invest in creators of decentralised applications and protocols.
Canada-headquartered Axelar’s technology lets people securely interact with any digital asset across any blockchain or application from one place with one click. The company claims it connects to more blockchains than most other interoperability protocols and is now looking to invest in mechanisms that can replace centralised systems entirely.
“Recent innovations on the decentralised web, from digital art to novel market infrastructure, have inspired speculative fervour, but centralised services have been the beneficiaries – with disastrous results,” Axelar co-founder and CEO Sergey Gorbunov said in a release announcing the scheme.
“With the Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program, Axelar and its investment partners will back a new generation of Web3 startups that are poised to change that flow.”
The initiative is targeting technologies that can address global issues beyond the reach of a centralised internet while being able to bring large numbers of users onboard easily and maintaining the mooted benefits of decentralisation: digital sovereignty, security and privacy.
Axelar also wants to connect investors to startups building decentralised apps that can work across various chains through using its software as infrastructure. Those investors, in turn, will be able to make their own decisions about where their money goes once they meet participants.
Financial services firms such as HSBC have indicated they are still interested in investing in tokenisation and blockchain technologies, despite the recent turmoil in the cryptocurrency market following the collapse of FTX.
Partners for Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program include Siam Commercial Bank’s ‘moonshot’ venture capital unit, SCB 10X, as well as Chorus One, which provides staking services for blockchain networks.
The corporates are being joined by Blockchange, Collab+Currency, Cygni Capital, DAO5, DCVC, Divergence Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Lemniscap, Morningstar Ventures, Nima Capital, Node Capital, North Island Ventures and Rockaway Blockchain Fund, several of which are equity investors in Axelar. They will be able to meet project developers through hackathons, meetups or grant schemes run by the scheme.
“The next wave of crypto adoption won’t come on its own. We’re actively looking to invest in teams building applications and use cases that will build that momentum,” said Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of crypto VC fund Dragonfly Capital.
“These teams have clear vision and they’re looking for infrastructure like Axelar to make their vision possible. This is the nexus through which the next wave in crypto emerges.”
Lead image courtesy of Gerd Altmann via Pixabay.
