Original Author: Zen
On October 31 last year, the Hong Kong government issued a declaration at the Hong Kong Financial Technology Week, determined to compete for the global virtual asset center and Web3 center. Compared with Singapore, although Hong Kong is half a beat behind in terms of Web3 policy, it is still one of the strongest cities in Asia in terms of background. In fact, many giant projects in the encryption field started in Hong Kong. In recent years, many new start-ups and encryption investment institutions in the blockchain field have been born in Hong Kong, which shows the potential of Hong Kong to incubate Web3.
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Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain and gamification, promoting digital property rights through NFT and games, and building an open metaverse. As a typical representative of chain game manufacturers, Animoca Brands performed well in 2022. It not only announced the completion of different rounds of financing three times, two of which exceeded US$100 million; it also invested in nearly 70 companies, including the lending agreement Liqiwid, The game foragers and fighters, the NFT project Wanderers, the Metaverse project VCORE, and the game data engine thirdwave are second only to Coinbase Ventures in terms of activity. In terms of investment layout, games have always been the core of Animoca Brands. In terms of quantity, the game category accounts for more than 60% of all its investment projects in 2022.
As a game metaverse giant, Animoca Brands not only focuses on making blockchain games, but also prefers to invest in various open and digital metaverse platforms. Animoca believes that gamers will drive the popularity of Metaverse because players understand virtual worlds and merchandise, and are already familiar with the original virtual world experience of the game world. As of the end of 2022, Animocas portfolio has more than 380 companies, including more than 170 investments in NFT-related companies and decentralized projects. These projects help build the open metaverse, including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and more.
HashKey Group
HashKey Capital is a global asset management organization that focuses on investing in blockchain technology and digital assets. Its current asset management scale exceeds US$1 billion. As one of the largest and most influential blockchain investment institutions in Asia, and also the earliest institutional investor in Ethereum, HashKey Capital plays a leading role in linking Web2 and Web3, and communicates with entrepreneurs, investors, communities and regulators Work together to build a sustainable blockchain ecosystem. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong and has distribution in Singapore, Japan, the United States and other places. It has taken the lead in investing in infrastructure, tools and (with large-scale popularization potential) applications in more than 500 global invested companies.
On January 17 this year, HashKey announced that its third fund, HashKey Fintech Investment Fund III ("Phase III Fund") completed fundraising, and the scale of newly raised funds reached 500 million US dollars. HashKey Capital Phase III Fund (together with its affiliates, collectively referred to as HashKey Group) has received strong support from institutional investors, and its LP lineup consists of sovereign wealth funds, large enterprises and family offices. According to reports, the third phase of the fund will explore outstanding encryption and blockchain projects around the world, while focusing on growing emerging market opportunities.
Kenetic Capital
Kenetic Capital is a Hong Kong-based proprietary trading and venture capital firm focusing on digital assets and blockchain-related companies. Its founder, Jehan Chu, started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2013, and to date, he has invested in and supported more than 230 projects. Kenetic believes that companies building blockchain solutions across data, infrastructure, enterprise, trade and finance will be the backbone of next-generation technology and began investing in early-stage blockchain and encryption technologies in 2016, with its portfolio including Ethereum , solana, Algorand, Polkadot, Near, FLare, BlockFi, Alchemy, IoTeX and many other well-known encrypted projects.
In addition to focusing on the infrastructure construction of the blockchain industry, Jehan Chu, who used to work at Sotheby’s, is also optimistic about the application of NFT technology. Kenetic has also invested in NFT project Metakey, NFT and digital asset company Ioconic, NFT market DoinGud, NFT technology company Projects such as CXIP Labs.
C Capital
C Capital is a global asset management company that manages private equity funds, private credit funds and blockchain hedge funds. It was co-founded in 2017 by Hong Kong real estate tycoon Adrian Cheng along with Clive Ng and Ben Cheng. Its early name was C Ventures, and it was renamed C Capital in September 2022. Its Blockchain Market Fund is a discretionary long/short hedge fund that focuses on investing in the blockchain field. The above analysis assessment provides investors with a series of cryptocurrency trading strategies. According to Bloomberg, C Capital plans to launch a $200 million fund to invest in blockchain assets by the end of 2023, in addition to raising another $300 million to invest in private equity and private credit strategies.
C Capital has so far invested in more than 60 companies, covering consumer, technology and blockchain fields. Its investments in blockchain and digital assets include Ethereum infrastructure development company ConsenSys, financial service platform Matrixport, NFT virtual fashion brand RTFKT, Animoca Brands et al.
Everest Ventures Group
Everest Ventures Group, referred to as EVG, is a blockchain investment bank and incubation institution spun off from Huiyou Capital, a Hong Kong private equity/venture capital fund, aiming to promote the large-scale application of digital assets and blockchain technology. EVG focuses on Fintech, DeFi infrastructure, NFT, GameFi, Web 3 and Metaverse.
EVGs investment portfolio includes blockchain game and NFT developer Animoca Brands, decentralized metaverse The Sandbox, public chain Flow, encryption exchange Kraken and many other well-known projects. In the past year, it has invested in startups such as the GameFi project Tiny World, the decentralized game community Saga, the centralized liquidity DeFi protocol Crema Finance, and the Metaverse project Matrix World. In addition to investment and financing business, EVG will also build a lot of companies to do GameFi, film and television NFT and other businesses, and it will have more layout in the metaverse.
Token Bay Capital
Token Bay Capital is an early-stage venture fund that accepts investment from professional investors, investing in early-stage digital assets and blockchain companies in the Asia-Pacific region. Its founder, Lucy Gazmararian, was a senior leader of PwCs global encryption team, advising entrepreneurs, start-ups and financial institutions on encryption and blockchain projects, and assisting multiple central banks and other regulators in formulating encrypted assets. policy. Lucy also has a traditional finance background with over a decade of banking and asset management experience at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Schroders and Kleinwort Benson.
Token Bay Capital invests across the entire digital asset and blockchain space and is diversified across five verticals including Infrastructure, Financial Services, DeFi, Metaverse NFT, and Social Media E-Commerce. At present, Token Bay Capital has disclosed 20 projects in its investment portfolio. In addition to Yuga Labs, which owns the BAYC series, and Animoca Brands, a unicorn in the NFT and metaverse fields, it also participates in the blockchain security company DWallet Labs and NFT interactions. Investments in start-up companies such as the platform Shil.me, the decentralized trading platform Soma.Finance, and the blockchain data analysis company Merkle Science.
GBV Capital
GBV Capital (Genesis Block Ventures) is a venture fund focusing on Asian blockchain technology and digital assets. It is an investment institution of Genesis Block and mainly operates cryptocurrency over-the-counter trading business in Hong Kong. The GBV team supports full-stack collaboration with projects and aims to facilitate project development with marketing, transactional functions, product and strategy-focused team members who can help when needed. Since its establishment in 2020, GBV has invested in more than 70 companies, covering multiple vertical fields, including Layer 2 public chain Boba Network, Layer 2 money market protocol zkLend, DeFi startup Arch, encrypted options trading platform SignalPlus, P2E shooting category Game Cantina Royale, Web3 creator collaboration platform Joyn, etc. In addition, GBV also acquired OMG Network (formerly OmiseGo), Synqas second-layer scaling solution for Ethereum, at the end of 2020.
Newman Capital
Newman Capital is a full-stack venture capital firm focused on private equity investments in technology, blockchain start-ups, and art and collectibles investments, with key investment areas including core infrastructure, decentralized finance, social and gaming. In April 2022, Newman Capital announced the launch of a $50 million investment fund to help cutting-edge traditional enterprises strengthen their positions in the evolving Web3 world. The new fund focuses on three main areas: technology investments, Web3 applications, and art and collectibles. According to the official website, at present, Newmans team has supported more than 60 projects, in addition to NFT unicorn Yuga Labs, encryption exchange Kraken, Ethereum expansion and infrastructure development platform Polygon and Dapper Labs in the blockchain/web3 field. In addition to encryption projects, he also participated in the early investment in well-known Internet technology companies such as Reddit, SpaceX and Epic Games.
Chiron Group
Chiron is a venture capital institution that focuses on supporting global innovation teams, mainly investing in DeFi and NFT projects related to the Metaverse. In December 2021, Chiron announced the launch of a new $50 million fund Chiron Terra Fund I (CTI) to support innovative projects built on the Terra ecosystem, including decentralized finance (DeFi), and Metaverse Related non-fungible token (NFT) platforms, and cross-projects of the two. According to its official information, Chiron can support the management team in talent acquisition, business development, marketing, product design and strategy, and can also use the resources of its portfolio companies to create synergy and create value for multiple teams. So far, it has invested in more than 30 projects, including encrypted options trading platform SignalPlus, DeFi protocol DeSyn Protocol, metaverse project The Kingdom, etc.
MindWorks Capital
MindWorks Capital is an early stage and seed investment venture capital firm that seeks to invest in innovative companies in the technology sector, with direct investments in technology companies primarily in China and Southeast Asia. Manages funds from university endowments, global asset managers, funds of funds, family offices, and Asias leading new economy entrepreneurs. At present, MindWorks has invested in 33 projects, including a number of start-up companies in the blockchain field, such as YGG SEA under the chain game association YGG, encryption exchange Zipmex, on-chain data monitoring platform PARSIQ, compound asset agreement Starfish Finance, etc. .
Double Peak
Double Peak Group is a Hong Kong family office specializing in digital assets and blockchain investment, and has been deeply involved in the cryptocurrency field since 2017. Double Peak adopts the concept of value investment and conducts long-term key investment financing rounds and secondary markets in the early stage. Its ultimate vision is to bridge the cutting-edge decentralized technology between China and the international market. The Double Peak team is comprised of talented individuals with institutional backgrounds. Namely investment banking, private equity, venture capital and entrepreneurship. The company has invested in multiple areas, including: asset management, banking and payments, cross-chain platforms, CeFi-DeFi bridges, infrastructure protocols, investment funds. Double Peak has successfully invested in more than 70 companies, including Australian unicorn startup Immutable X, NFT asset production platform BreederDAO, NFT mobile role-playing game Guild of Guardians, encryption custodian Hex Trust, etc.
Amber Group
Amber Group is an industry-leading digital financial technology platform, and its founders are from top Wall Street investment banks such as Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Bloomberg. Amber Groups business covers the world, trading on more than 100 electronic trading platforms around the world. Based on the rapid development of the business and the resource background of the founding team, Amber has successively obtained large-scale financing from top investment institutions. In February last year, Amber Group completed a financing of US$200 million at a valuation of US$3 billion, with participation from Temasek, Sequoia China, Pantera Capital and Tiger Global Management; and completed a US$300 million C The round was led by Fenbushi Capital US, followed by other crypto-native investors and family offices.
In addition to being a transaction service provider, Amber Group is also a well-known institutional investor in the primary market. Its participating projects include public chain project NEAR Protocol, decentralized pledge agreement Stader Labs, decentralized pledge agreement SSV.Network, algorithmic stable currency project Sperax, Aurora native lending agreement Aurigami, lightweight public chain Mina, Japan Block Chain game startup double jump.tokyo, Web3 infrastructure company EthSign, etc.
IOSG Ventures
IOSG Ventures is an investment and research company focusing on the blockchain/encryption field. Its investment fields cover multiple blockchain verticals such as infrastructure, DeFi, GameFi and SocialFi. Since its establishment in 2017, IOSG has invested in nearly a hundred projects. According to the official website, when investing, it focuses on the breakthrough and innovation of the project, the ambition and resilience of the founder and the team, excellent operation and delivery capabilities, and focus on community building.
In the early days of the company, IOSG mainly focused on investing in Layer 1 projects and became one of the main investors in Polkadot and Near Protocol. It has invested in many well-known projects, including 0x, 1inch.exchange, DeFi Alliance, etc. in the Defi field, and Conflux, Cosmos, Mina Protocol, etc. in the Layer-1 field.
CyberPort
CyberPort is an innovative digital community with more than 1,900 start-ups and technology companies, one of the largest Web3 communities in Hong Kong, dedicated to promoting the development of fintech, smart life and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain , managed by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. CyberPort has launched the Venture Capital Fund (CMF) with a total investment of HK$400 million, which is used to provide seed investment and A-round or later financing to technology start-ups. CyberPort also has a Creative Micro Fund (CCMF) to support the development of innovative , creative digital technology ideas and the growth of early start-ups, the start-up projects selected by the independent review committee will receive a total of 100,000 Hong Kong dollars in subsidies in three stages.
At the beginning of January this year, Cyberport announced the establishment of Web3 Hub@Cyberport, which aims to attract and support global Web3 innovators and entrepreneurs, continuously strengthen talent support and resource investment for the development of Hong Kongs emerging industries, and enhance Hong Kongs development advantages. At present, there are not many blockchain projects invested by CyberPort, such as digital asset custodian Hex Trust, etc., but with the support and benefits of policies, more blockchain technology companies may emerge from it in the future.
Cultur 3 Capital
Cultur 3 Capital is a venture capital firm focused on Web3. Cultur 3 believes that tokens power people, and DAO is the future of business. It focuses on NFT, DAO, and Web3 community-related investments. Since its establishment in 2020, it has invested in more than 30 companies. Its invested projects include Sky Mavis, the game studio behind Axie Infinity, KnownOrigin, an encrypted art NFT platform, Nameless, an NFT casting platform, NFT Bank, an NFT asset management platform, and the Web3 version of LinkedIn Govrn, enabling DAO to distribute to contributors fairly Compensation for Coordinape, Metaverse Platform Portals, etc.
Cell Rising Capital
Cell Rising Capital is a venture capital fund focusing on cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence. It is committed to investing in potential start-ups engaged in cutting-edge technology research on a global scale, such as artificial intelligence robots, artificial intelligence manufacturing, decentralized processing technology, insurance technology, Financial technology, etc., to help enterprises enhance their competitiveness in the industry. Cell Rising not only simply invests in financing companies, but its entrepreneurial consultants and expert teams can provide entrepreneurs with professional advice and technical support to promote the rapid growth of companies and achieve scale expansion. Cell Rising has less investment in the encryption field. It has disclosed that it invested in digital asset custodian Hex Trust, and participated in the early rounds of Animoca Brands and digital asset exchange Archax, and then withdrew from the investment.
QBN Capital
QBN Capital is a technology-focused venture capital fund headquartered in Hong Kong. It mainly invests in early-stage and growth-stage financial technology companies in Asia and Europe. Its investment fields involve big data analysis, artificial intelligence, biometrics and digital identity, financial technology , network and data security, health, and more. QBNs investment in the encryption field is concentrated in CeFi and DeFi. QBN will lead the investment in digital asset custodian Hex Trust in 2021, and finally help it complete a $6 million Series A financing. In addition, QBN also invested in Luxembourgs digital securities platform DEFYCA, Hong Kong Digital asset exchange HKbitEX, Swiss digital asset service company CryptoFinanceAG.
