Circle Launches Venture Capital Fund for Early Stage Blockchain Projects

Circle, the digital currency company that jointly administers the USDC stablecoin with Coinbase, has launched the Circle Ventures fund to support early stage blockchain projects and companies.

• The fund doesn’t have a predetermined monetary amount, Circle told CoinDesk, and has already deployed initial capital.

• “Circle’s mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of financial value. Achieving it is ambitious and will take a village of many, many people and projects and companies to develop the technologies, the products and protocols needed to get us there,” wrote Circle CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen in a blog post announcing the launch.

• “Through Circle Ventures, we will be now able to bring our financial capital to bear, support these compelling early stage companies in a new way, and accelerate their development and contributions to our shared mission,” Fox-Geen added.

• Circle announced plans earlier this year to go public through a reverse merger with Concord Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal, which values Circle at $4.5 billion, is expected to close before the end of the year.