Announcing Tendermint Ventures
We are investing $20m in the next wave of critical infrastructure for the Cosmos ecosystem.
Today, we are announcing Tendermint Ventures, a $20m fund through which we will invest in valuable projects building with Cosmos and driving the expansion of the Cosmos ecosystem. The Cosmos ecosystem is made up of 200+ blockchains with a shared market cap of $60 billion. Tendermint Ventures will plant the seeds for the next 200 application-specific blockchains to join Cosmos’ decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable chains.
Tendermint Ventures has been months in the making. The success of the Stargate upgrade delivered the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, enabling assets and data to flow freely across any blockchain within Cosmos. This milestone unlocked the next phase of growth potential for our community, and Tendermint Ventures will invest in the projects that will enable Cosmos to expand even further.
Tendermint Ventures will be the largest investment vehicle in the Cosmos ecosystem. We will invest in companies of various sizes and maturity, up and down the Cosmos tech stack. Our main criteria is technology that enables interchain interoperability. Beyond capital, we will provide advisory, community, and growth resources to help bring projects to market.
Our initial focus areas include:
- Staking derivatives and decentralized derivatives (futures, options)
- Decentralized lending and borrowing
- Decentralized stablecoins
- Oracles
- Decentralized insurance
Today, we are thrilled to announce our first round of investments in Regen, Terra, IRIS, Tgrade, with each project as unique as the people they serve and problems they solve.
Regen Network has been a close collaborator and integral part of the Cosmos ecosystem for years. They are building a marketplace for climate solutions that will enable a future of shared resources and more sustainable ecological practices. Central to their offerings is the Regen Ledger, which is built with the Cosmos SDK. Their mission is to regenerate the planet through development of decentralized, public infrastructure for ecological asset markets — an ambitious endeavor that we are humbled to support.
Built with Cosmos, Terra is a standout project that has garnered international adoption through its novel approach to stablecoins. They are bringing to market consumer finance applications that make using crypto easy, intuitive, and profitable. Our investment will go towards aligning incentives and collaboration between Cosmos and Terra as well as bridge-liquidity between the two projects.
IRIS enables cross-chain interoperability through a unified service model, while providing a variety of modules to support DeFi applications. Our investment in IRIS will continue to grow our footprint in Asia, and will support IRIS in its mission to provide critical infrastructure that allows applications built with Cosmos to communicate.
Earlier this year, we announced a strategic investment in Tgrade, a blockchain framework focused on regulated decentralized finance (DeFi). Tgrade provides the foundation for businesses to deploy DeFi products, such as pegs and automated market makers, using the robust CosmWasm engine. Tgrade will be a part of the Tendermint Ventures portfolio.
Starting today, founders interested in investment from Tendermint Ventures can learn more at tendermint.com/ventures.
