By
Mayowa Adebajo
February 19th, 2024
The Core Fund will also be used to back projects that seek to advance commercialized and expanded learning platforms as well as digital health delivery.
American based Venture Capital Firm, Union Square Ventures is aiming to invest as much as $75 million in its new 2021 Core Fund with commitments of $250 million. According to a blog post shared by the company’s Managing Partner Andy Weissman, the proposed $75 million allocations for crypto-related investments represent 30% of the Core Fund and will be used to take up a holding in individual cryptocurrencies as well as promising blockchain or crypto startups.
The world is changing innovatively and in a more rapid manner as new tech startups aim to become tech unicorns with game-changing product offerings at their beck and call. Since its inception in 2003, Union Square Ventures has positioned itself in identifying exceptional tech-based firms and it boasts of companies like Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) and Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange as firms under its portfolio.
Weissman noted that the company makes its pick of startups to back using its Union Square Ventures USV Thesis 3.0 approach, an approach that places bets on “Trusted brands that broaden access to knowledge, capital, and well-being by leveraging networks, platforms, and protocols.”
Cryptocurrencies are just part of the plans for the new Core Fund, and the company hopes to identify more unique opportunities in the emerging tech world by adhering to its Thesis 3.0 approach.
Other Key Focuses of the Union Square Ventures Core Fund
From Weissman’s notes, the Core Fund will also be used to back projects that seek to advance commercialized and expanded learning platforms as well as digital health delivery. Weissman implied that the advent of the coronavirus pandemic in the past year has necessitated the roll-out of more tech-focused solutions within the education and healthcare deliveries.
“This past year has seen fundamental (and likely permanent) behavioral changes such as the growth in distance learning, increased usage of telemedicine and asynchronous digital health delivery, and the rise of remote work,” He wrote, adding that, “These changes accelerated digitalization of tech stacks that in other industries have often been a precursor to falling costs and wider access (e.g., ecommerce). These are the types of opportunities we have been focused on since the beginning of Thesis 3.0.”
According to Weissman, Union Square Ventures is “particularly interested in understanding companies that are finding ways to broaden access to learning and healthcare by creating new, trusted solutions,” and that is perhaps what will draw the bulk allocation of the Core Fund. The Venture Capital executive did not specify which cryptocurrencies it will be backing, neither did he give a definite timeline when all these investments will be made.
