A $100 million venture fund has been created by a group of former Binance executives. Binance is one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency platforms. Founded in 2021, Old Fashion Research (OFR) was founded in 2021 by managing partners Ling Zhang – former vice president of M&A and Investments at Binance, and Wayne Fu – former head of corporate development at Binance.
The venture fund will be used to increase cryptocurrency adoption in emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa, and be used to focus on the metaverse as well, Ling Zhang said. “We are keen to work with builders for the long run. We are very Southern Hemisphere-focused. … We’ll go after all of the emerging markets, but it’s our goal and vision to accelerate adoption there.”
While he worked at Binance, Ling Zhang played important roles in acquiring other companies and making strategic investments in others.
“Old Fashion Research is a multi-strategy blockchain investment fund founded by executives from the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange,” the company’s website reads.
“We focus on value-added investments where we can deploy our expertise, resources, and network to drive growth and success of ecosystems and their leading players. Our investments cover early-stage incubation, venture capital, M&A, and other special situations.”
The funding was led by global gaming platform WEMIX and saw the participation of limited partners, traditional venture capital funds, family offices, and angel investors. The project has been operating in stealth until the latest announcement. It has invested in more than 50 blockchain projects including crypto, NFTs, gaming, and the metaverse.
“We’re strong believers in the metaverse, not just user activity but the assets perspective. We believe web3 will be the very first step to revolutionize [our] own identities and asset management;” Ling Zhang said.
Binance’s former chief financial officer Wei Zhou will serve as a strategic adviser and investor of OFR. Jiang Xin who led Binance Labs’ and Launchpad’s major investment deals such as Axie Infinity, Moonbeam, Alpha Finance, and others, will support the venture arm.
“The market conditions have cooled down a bit since the beginning of the year and we’re thinking it is more of an opportunity than a challenge for OFR. Since the fund is newly started, we can find cheaper and more reasonable valuations during the market downturn and a lot of bubbles will be coming out,” Jiang Xin said.
“Crypto itself is a revolution and disruption of the capital plate. It’s no longer centralized in a top-down approach. More and more VCs are looking for ways to invest in crypto projects,” Zhang said.
“This is the best timing for us to identify the long-term believers in the crypto space and is the best timing to make investments and incubate more projects,” he added.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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