Crypto startups want to haven’t solely a robust tech infrastructure however have the “capability to learn the market and pivot when wanted” to be worthy of funding, in accordance to the founding father of OKX’s funding arm.
“For founders wanting to work with us — sure, your tech wants to be solid, however we’re equally all in favour of the way you adapt to what customers really want,” OKX Ventures’ Jeff Ren informed Cointelegraph in a current interview.
“A few of our greatest partnerships got here from groups who pitched us early, weren’t fairly prepared, however got here again stronger with options that completely matched the place the market was heading.”
VC funding into crypto startups has fallen because the trade’s document 12 months in 2022, with solely $10 billion invested throughout 1,940 offers in 2024, in contrast to $30.2 billion in 3,500 offers, in accordance to PitchBook knowledge.
OKX invested greater than $100 million in capital to fund 60 crypto startups in 2024, with a selected focus on the Solana, Sui, Aptos, TON and Bitcoin ecosystems.
Ren mentioned that his agency analyzes market traits and person wants by its OKX pockets to assist its VC funding selections.
However when approached with an funding alternative, Ren mentioned OKX first considers whether or not it could combine its pockets infrastructure to assist and “create worth” with these founders.
Ren took Web3 video games for instance, noting that OKX’s pockets might help a GameFi studio by facilitating the acquisition of in-game property or offering onchain liquidity for them.
“If that’s the case, we’re glad to create a place inside your undertaking and join you with our pockets,” Ren mentioned.
Nevertheless, Ren famous that, like many VCs, OKX has expanded its guidelines for funding and is rigorously vetting crypto startups by a spread of analytics instruments.
Shi Khai Wei, founding father of cryptocurrency-focused VC agency LongHash Ventures, informed Cointelegraph final April that it has been tougher to get hold of enterprise capital funding this cycle in contrast to 2020-2021, the place some startups acquired tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} whereas having just a few staff members, a white paper and some lofty guarantees.
Keiran Warwick, founding father of GameFi studio Illuvium, attested to this, telling Cointelegraph final April that VCs have since expanded their checklists and wish to see gameplay, artists, builders, safety audits and extra.
Wanting forward, Ren mentioned he was most enthusiastic about leveraging AI to enhance the decentralized finance buying and selling expertise.
He additionally sees alternatives in expertise that strikes mental property property onchain to investing in memecoin infrastructure and is assured that non-fungible tokens will finally discover their market match.
