Venture Capital MetaWeb raises $30 million for early-stage crypto startups

MetaWeb, a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage crypto startups, has raised $30 million for its first fund, with funding from Sequoia Capital, Dragonfly Capital, the Near Foundation, and other investors.

• The VC claims the fund will invest in startups in decentralized social media, decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, and decentralized autonomous organizations. It has invested in up to 30 startups, including Orderly Network, a decentralized exchange that last raised $20 million in June.
• MetaWeb is a crypto-native investment research team comprising crypto veterans, including industry leaders, engineers, and entrepreneurs. MetaWeb Ventures was formed as an ecosystem fund for the Near Protocol, a layer 1 blockchain network on which decentralized apps (dapps) are built. Near focuses on reducing costs and improving speed to rival Ethereum.
• The VC firm has extended beyond the Near Protocol and is now investing in applications on other networks such as Cosmos, Aurora, and Ethereum.
• MetaWeb prides itself on being builders and investors. It initially operated in stealth mode for a few months before raising and deploying its first fund.