The funds Luno Expedition will deploy to the startups it will be backing will range from $50,000 to $250,000 which will sum up to about $15 million to $75 million when the number of projected startups it hopes to back is factored in.
Luno, a popular cryptocurrency platform owned by the Digital Currency Group (DCG) has launched Luno Expeditions, its Venture Capital arm to invest in crypto and fintech startups at the seed and pre-seed stages respectively. As reported by TechCrunch, the funds will be deployed to fund startups globally and its scaling efforts will require a localized approach.
Luno to Invest in Crypto and Fintech
Per the details contained in the report, Luno Expeditions has no defined funding size and is poised to back about 250 to 300 startups annually. Emily Cheng will act as the Chief Executive Officer of the new startup whose investment will model similar ideals of the parent Luno and Digital Currency Groups respectively.
Commenting on the company’s plans to back startups in both crypto and fintech when compared with the focused approach by competing venture capital companies in the ecosystem, Cheng said:
“There are very few truly global and very early-stage fintech funds in the world; we see an exciting opportunity here to build one. The reason why it’s not just pure crypto is that over the past few years, as operators scaling some of the largest crypto businesses in the world, we have noticed that there is such a strong intersection between some of the traditional fintechs and crypto.”
For what it is worth, VC firms like Paradigm Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) have both launched billions of dollars worth of funding to back Web3.0 focused startups. The plans from Luno Expeditions will make it sit at the intersection of innovative trends bothering on both crypto and fintech respectively.
Luno Expedition is not coming off as an entirely new outfit as it has been investing in the crypto ecosystem for quite a while now. Thus far, the VC arm of Luno has backed Nala, a Tanzanian-based remittance company, Busha, an African-focused digital currency exchange, and Pakistani digital bank for women, Oraan amongst others.
Luno Expeditions Funding Range
The funds Luno Expedition will deploy to the startups it will be backing will range from $50,000 to $250,000 which will sum up to about $15 million to $75 million when the number of projected startups it hopes to back is factored in.
“We are likely to invest at the upper end of that range. Also, we have some flexibility, including writing larger cheques as we scale,” Cheng said. “The reason we didn’t go with a fund structure is that we don’t need any external funding to be able to build this business, both from a capital and management fee perspective. It also allows us to finance investments with evergreen capital, which we believe is more valuable to founders building companies in the fintech space and aligns all of our long-term interests better.”
The Luno Expeditions management comprises an all-female team, all of whom are well-grounded in the startup’s mission and approach to achieving its goals.
Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalists who relish writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desires to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain based media and sites. Benjamin Godfrey is a lover of sports and agriculture.
