By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 22nd, 2024
NEAR and Caerus want to revolutionize the Web3 space further, and have combined forces to create a fund for this purpose.
The NEAR Foundation has announced a $100 million venture capital fund targeted at Web3-driven initiatives. The Foundation is also collaborating with early-stage tech investor Caerus Ventures on the launch of the VC fund.
Pursuant to agreements, the NEAR Foundation will anchor the Web3 fund, which has an initial closing of $50 million. The balance chunk of a target $100 million capital will go towards seed to Series A investments, including expediting Web3 adoption. Furthermore, the first investment will be in the venture lab, which will work with several creative individuals to push Web3 culture and entertainment. This group of industry proponents constitutes creators, talent, and franchise owners. Speaking on the Web3 agenda, IMG executive Nathan Pillai, who helms the newly-launched Caerus Ventures, said:
“I believe talent and intellectual property (IP) creators need to have a more equitable share of value that is created, and for this, to be then shared amongst consumers and fans.”
In addition, Pillai also stated that Caerus Ventures seeks to induce innovation in Web3. The move will use Web3 to improve on areas including sports, music, film, fashion, and art. He said that they “want to focus on how to deepen engagement and reward the people who spend a lot of time and money consuming entertainment.”
Furthermore, the head of Caerus ventures added that the investment firm is considering investing in a music streaming service. According to him, the streaming service will allow users to do more than just listen to an artiste’s music. Fans will be able to also invest in the success of artiste’s they like or enjoy.
NEAR Foundation CEO Comments on Web3 Fund Aim
Also weighing in on the NEAR Foundation’s Web3 scheme with Caerus Ventures, Marieke Flament, CEO of the Foundation, says:
“Our cultural passions for live sport, film, or music have historically been leveraged to on-ramp billions of consumers to new technologies. The creators, talent, and franchises with reach and influence spearheaded that growth and will now drive the adoption of blockchain at scale. But this time, they and their fans will have greater access to the value created.”
Furthermore, Flament added that NEAR and Caerus Ventures are deliberately trying to recreate the definition of a creator. The Foundation’s CEO also explained that NEAR opted to collaborate with Caerus because of their similar values. According to Flament, Caerus’ standout proposition and elaborate investment thesis relies considerable on the “tokenization of entertainment.”
Equally speaking on NEAR’s antecedents, Caerus’ Pillai expresses admiration for the Foundation’s value proposition for developers and users. Furthermore, he also suggested that NEAR’s mission help the creative community. The plan is to allow creatives maintain more control of their creations.
NEAR
NEAR was founded by Alexander Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin as a platform that raises the bar on how people interact as a decentralized community. Such interactions include reimagining finance and creativity in novel ways. The advent of NEAR makes the mass adoption of blockchain feasible.