By Anshuman Daga and Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s Whampoa Group, a multifamily with investments in global generation companies, aims to deploy around $100 million through a venture capital fund for startups in the burgeoning virtual asset segment, its top executives said.
Whampoa Digital, the group’s virtual asset investment arm, will invest and incubate early-stage startups in Web3, a utopian vision of the web where users, rather than shareholders, own websites and other online services.
“We believe there is a wonderful conviction in this space. The venture capital fund will expand our footprint in this area,” Shawn Chan, chief executive of Whampoa Group, told Reuters in a recent interview.
He said the fund, which is expected to launch in the next quarter, has attracted interest from Chinese tech corporations and Asian business groups.
The fund plans to first deploy $100 million and then expand. It will invest in equity and tokens of products or facilities that allow and facilitate the mass adoption of web3.
Cryptocurrencies are the most well-known virtual assets that also come with solid coins, non-fungible tokens, and the like.
Whampoa Group has created an investment portfolio of some two hundred corporations over the past decade, adding Chinese tech company ByteDance and a fund created through cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
Globally, venture capitalists are increasing investment in crypto projects: blockchain-based programs and platforms powered through Web3.
Aureole Foong, senior wife of Whampoa Group, said that while cryptocurrencies have had a hot year, Web 3 startups, such as those involved in decentralized financial programs, offer great long-term growth prospects.
He said Web3 projects are starting to have uses as cash movement and the entertainment industry.
Whampoa Group is co-founded through Amy Lee, Lee’s eldest ex-wife
The other co-founder of the investment organization is Lee Han Shih, a member of the business circle of relatives who co-founded southeast Asian bank OCBC and Lee Rubber Group, among other companies.
Chan said Southeast Asia’s demographics and superior penetration make it a fertile region for mass adoption of Web3 products and services.
(Reporting through Anshuman Daga and Yantoultra Ngui; Editing via Elaine Hardcastle)