Billionaire-backed Hong Kong crypto VC pours $100M into blockchain fund

CMCC Global, a blockchain-focused venture capital firm backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, aims to provide support for entrepreneurs building companies in the industry.

Called the Titan Fund, it has a particular focus on early-stage startups operating in the blockchain verticals of infrastructure, fintech and consumer applications such as gaming, metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The Titan Fund’s investments will be directed towards equity investments in blockchain companies, not digital assets, according to a statement released on Wednesday. 

Block.one served as the anchor investor, pledging $50 million. CMCC Global, the fund’s initiator, also contributed a 15% general partner commitment. 

Other notable investors include Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group, Hong Kong’s Jebsen Capital, Winklevoss Capital and Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu.

“The Titan Fund will empower great entrepreneurs to build the next wave of Web3 and blockchain powered fintech applications,” Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said in a statement.

“The last five years have seen a set of new unicorn companies emerge, the next five to ten years will see this trend continue to accelerate as mainstream adoption of blockchain technology proliferates,” he added.

The fund’s management is a collaborative effort between CMCC Global’s co-founders Charles Morris and Martin Baumann. 

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This institutional-grade fund is entrusted to State Street as the fund administrator, and EY assumes the role of auditor. 

Among the fund’s initial five investments, two have been directed towards Hong Kong-based companies, Baumann told the South China Morning Post. 

Although there isn’t a strict mandate specifying the allocation of capital to Hong Kong companies, the primary focus remains on investing in the most promising entrepreneurs globally, Baumann added.

The Titan Fund’s investment portfolio already includes various noteworthy ventures. 

It played a leading role in backing Mocaverse, an NFT project by Animoca Brands in December. 

Additionally, the fund invested in Terminal 3, a Hong Kong-based company specializing in blockchain-driven digital identity solutions. 

Beyond these domestic investments, the Titan Fund ventured into international territory, supporting projects like Informal Systems, co-founded by seasoned crypto expert and Cosmos co-founder Ethan Buchman, as well as the NFT-focused ecommerce platform KickzMeta and its affiliated project, Mooncourt. 

Further, it engaged with a San Francisco-based Y-combinator team dedicated to innovating in the realm of tokenization of enterprises and assets.

With Hong Kong’s recent introduction of a regulatory licensing program for digital asset operators, there’s been a surge in interest from various players, especially cryptocurrency exchanges. 

However, it’s worth noting that crypto transaction volumes in Hong Kong dropped by about $6 billion between July 2022 and June 2023 compared to the previous year, following a tumultuous period for the industry.

This decline also made Hong Kong drop one place in Chainalysis’ most recent global crypto adoption ranking.

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