Singapore FinTech Cake DeFi Will Invest in Web3, NFTs with $100M VC Arm

Singapore-based cryptocurrency FinTech platform Cake DeFi on Wednesday (March 9) launched a $100 million venture capital investment arm — Cake DeFi Ventures — that will target Web3, the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), eSports gaming and other FinTechs, according to a company blog post.

Cake DeFi, which has more than $1 billion in managed customer assets, allows users to buy, lend and stake cryptocurrencies, among other services, according to a CoinDesk report. Cake DeFi CEO Dr. Julian Hosp and CTO U-Zyn Chua, who both co-founded the firm, will lead the investment platform.

“We’re a [business-to-consumer] platform that’s really centered around providing easy cash flow for our customers,” Hosp told CoinDesk. “So the thesis for the fund is mainly to look for projects and companies where we can have a symbiosis.”

The fund will offer money, insights and industry connections to investment companies, but will take a hands-off approach to the companies in which it invests as far as operations and board membership, he said.

“As an extension of our multiple blockchains support and having built up an R&D arm with cryptography, deep tech capability and specialization, investing in companies that bring synergies to Cake DeFi’s core business will allow us to enhance our Web3 offerings,” said Chua in the press release.

Related: Powered by DeFi, NFTs and Web 3.0, Decentralized Social Media Seeks to Unseat Tech Giants

Last month, decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Aave launched a Web3 social media protocol, dubbed Lens Protocol. Everything within the protocol is based on NFTs, starting with user-controlled profiles that “contain the history of all posts, mirrors, comments and other content you generate,” meaning you can take your profile with you.

All Lens Protocol content — including images, music and video — will be held in non-fungible tokens, and even follows and likes will be NFT-based. That means you can take your followers with you as well.

Lens Protocol promised “familiar social media functions like having a profile, commenting, resharing a post, and more — but unlike social media of the past, Lens Protocol is powered by NFTs, so you own and control all of your content.”