Singapore-based cryptocurrency investment platform Cake DeFi has launched a $100-million venture capital arm to invest in web3, gaming, and fintech companies with links to the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFT), blockchain, and e-sports.
Cake DeFi plans to deploy the $100-million capital in two years, it said in a statement. Its first investment is in US-based NFT media company, The Edge Of Company, Inc.
Founded in 2019 by Julian Hosp and U-Zyn Chua, Cake DeFi allows users to stake, lend, and mine cryptocurrencies.
Hosp was a co-founder of the now-defunct TenX, which had raised $80 million in an initial coin offering in 2017 but then shut down in 2020. Hosp, who had faced accusations of insider trading, left the company in 2019. Denying the allegations in a blog post in 2021, Hosp had said he was forced out of the company.
Hosp was also previously engaged with Lyoness, an Austrian discount shopping service that has been deemed a pyramid scheme in its home country and Italy.
“As an extension of our multiple blockchains support and having built up an R&D arm with cryptography deep tech capability, investing in companies that bring synergies to Cake DeFi’s core business will allow us to enhance and broaden our Web3 offerings,” Chua said in a statement.
Cake DeFi claims to manage over $1 billion in customer assets, and a tenfold growth in registered customer base in 2021.
Other cryptocurrency companies with corporate venture arms include crypto exchange Binance with Binance Labs and Crypto.com’s $500-million fund.
