VanEck Launches $30 Million Venture Fund Targeting Fintech, Digital Assets, and AI Startups

VanEck is launching a new $30 million fund. This fund focuses on investing in fintech, digital asset, and artificial intelligence (AI) companies. It targets firms in their pre-seed or seed stages.

About 25 to 30 different projects will be selected. Each project can receive funding between $500,000 and $1 million. One area that VanEck is particularly interested in is tokenization.

This announcement marks a strategic move for VanEck into the venture capital space. The fund, called VanEck Ventures, will be managed by Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez. Both have experience leading Circle Ventures, the venture arm of stablecoin issuer Circle.

VanEck has already invested in four projects. Jan van Eck, the CEO, shared, “From pioneering gold investing in 1968 to recognizing Bitcoin’s potential in 2017, we’ve always embraced a long-term view on transformative opportunities. This fund extends that vision into early-stage ventures.”

The fund is particularly looking for projects at the application layer. This includes tokenized assets, internet-based financial marketplaces, and next-gen payment solutions that utilize stablecoins.

As a 69-year-old asset manager, VanEck has a history of spotting emerging investment trends. They have big plans in the digital asset space that go beyond their current crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In a March interview with CoinDesk, VanEck Portfolio Manager Pranav Kanade mentioned that the CEO aims for 15% of the firm’s assets under management to be in crypto. Right now, that number is only about 1%.