By
Tolu Ajiboye
April 19th, 2024
Old Fashion Research’s investment focus is on emerging markets like South America and Africa. The goal is to bring wider metaverse and crypto adoption to these regions by investing in local blockchain projects.
A group of former Binance executives has launched a $100 million blockchain-focused fund to support crypto and metaverse adoption. The multi-strategy blockchain investment fund, Old Fashioned Research (OFR), was founded in 2021 and has already invested in more than 50 blockchain projects spanning various ecosystems and geographic markets.
OFR seeks to support blockchain projects and founders through all the stages starting at the idea stage. They provide proprietary research, network and marketing support.
Some of these projects include deep liquidity and low-cost trading platform WOO Network, move-to-earn NFT game Genopets, Africa’s largest gaming community Metaverese Magna (MVM), Avalanche-based free-to-play-and-earn game MetaDerby and omnichain interoperability smart contract platform ZetaChain.
A Team Built for Multi-Strategy Investment
Some of OFR’s key partners and investors include gaming platform WEMIX – the major investor and JUE Capital. The founding team is made largely of ex-Binance executives including former Vive President of M&A and Investments at Binance. Zhang was at the helm of some of Binance’s most notable acquisitions and investments like FTX, WazirX, Sipe.io, Multicoin Capital, Tokyocrypto, Chiliz and CertiK.
Commenting on the fund, Zhang had this to say:
“We’re very excited to come out of stealth with our new fund and help build the next generation of Web 3.0 dApps. The OFR team has established solid knowledge and a wide range of experience across M&A, investment and incubation from our previous successful portfolio building at Binance. Deep down, we are a group of passionate builders, and we are keen to seek founders who share the same long term vision and passion of the crypto industry, and we are determined to grow with them together.”
Wayne Fu, the former Head of Corporate Development at Binance is OFR’s Founding Managing Partner. Jiang “JX” Xin is in charge of OFR’s venture arm. JX previously led some Binance Labs and Launchpad’s key investment deals including Axie Infinity, Moonbeam and Alpha Finance. Another partner is former Binance CFO and Coin.ph CEO Wei Zhou who will serve as a strategic advisor.
Southern Hemisphere-Focused Crypto Investments
Old Fashion Research’s investment focus is on emerging markets like South America and Africa. The goal of the fund is to bring wider metaverse and crypto adoption to these regions by investing in local blockchain projects.
“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,” Zhang told TechCrunch.