Two former members of the TON Foundation, Ian Wittkopp and Inal Kardan, have launched a venture fund raising $40 million to support early-stage crypto projects within the TON ecosystem. This substantial financial backing will allow them to provide significant support to innovative projects within the TON ecosystem.
TON Ventures is both a venture capital firm and an incubator. It focuses on helping early-stage projects by investing in new ideas using the TON blockchain.
The firm also supports innovation by providing funds and resources to boost creativity and tech development within the TON ecosystem. TON Ventures aims to bring more developers and projects to the platform.
The TON blockchain has gained a lot of attention in the last year. This attention can be attributed to the launch of Mini Apps amongst several other moves by the TON Foundation. As a result, its user base has grown significantly, and its Total Value Locked (TVL) has surpassed $600 million.
Over 1,000 projects are now building on TON. Venture firms are increasingly interested because of TON’s connection to Telegram, which has nearly 900 million monthly active users. This large user base is a key advantage for the TON ecosystem.
The two former TON officials who held key roles at the TON Foundation are interested in helping these new startups build value on TON. Wittkopp believes that the integration of TON with Telegram’s massive user base could produce billion-dollar companies in areas like decentralized finance and gaming.
He also said that the $40 million fund will be released over a 12-month calendar to meet the demand from the TON ecosystem. The former official hinted that he expects that fund to increase as more partners join.
Records reveal that TON Ventures has invested in top projects on TON such as Catizen and Evaa Protocol with an average of $500,000 given to each.
According to Wittkopp, Web3 products using TON and Telegram will soon compete with big players in remittances and banking. He expects major progress in these areas in the next 3-5 years.
In July, Bitget announced a $20 million fund to support the development and drive the adoption of Web3 within the TON ecosystem. This fund was raised alongside Singaporean investment firm Foresight Ventures. Similar to TON Ventures, the Bitget $20M fund will provide early-stage support to innovative projects in the TON ecosystem.
