Red Beard Ventures raises $25M to support DeFi and web3 gaming projects
Red Beards Ventures, a web3 venture capital firm, has raised $25 million in its funding round with top web3 players such as a16z’s Marc Andreessen, SuperRare CEO John Crain, and others.
Supporting web3 development
Red Beards Ventures’ funding round aimed to accelerate web3 technologies adoption and support the tokenomics accelerator program launch. The program, Denarii Labs, is created in partnership with Horizen Labs Ventures.
Denarii Labs will focus on mentorship, advisory services, weekly educational sessions, launch support, and more for projects launching tokens. The accelerator is accepting applications for its inaugural cohort that will commence during the third quarter of this year. Each selected company will receive $100,000 to establish its brand.
Drew Austin, the founder and managing partner at Red Beard Ventures, mentioned that he had been on the other side of this, having been a founder since he was 19 and hence used to raising money.
The new fund will interact with early-stage decentralized finance(DeFi) projects, web3 gaming infrastructure, decentralized protocols, and novel blockchain technology. Austin believes that such projects will accelerate mass adoption. In addition, he noted that it would bring an exponentially bigger audience than NFTs and DeFi have managed.
The founder also highlighted that the new audience would be onboard with expectations of better and more scalable infrastructure, better user experience, and better interoperability across chains.
Red Beard Ventures’ success stems from early market entry
Red Beard Ventures came about in 2019 as a syndicate of a startup accelerator AngelList. It invested in 192 companies, including data aggregator CryptoSlam, metaverse platform The Sandbox, and NBA Top Shot parent Dapper Labs, giving over $40 million in capital.
The company has succeeded in web3 even though it has invested in robotics, climate science, space exploration, biotech, AI, and fintech projects.
Austin highlighted that his success is tied to his early interest in DeFi, NFTs, and blockchain technology and his journey as a digital art collector. In addition, he mentioned that that allowed him to see the space from different angles hence making it a unique competitive advantage.
