SINGAPORE JUNE 8 2022 / EMURGO Ventures – EMURGO Ventures, the investment arm of Cardano’s official commercial arm EMURGO, today announced and outlined its global investment strategy to foster Cardano’s Web3 adoption, including the appointment of two senior executives to execute its strategy.
EMURGO Ventures will carry a broad strategic investment perspective based on Web3 technologies with Cardano interoperability. It will target investments into an expanded spectrum of startups and already established companies; including those that are blockchain-agnostic and built on other blockchain platforms that are interoperable with Cardano’s ecosystem.
Ultimately, this strategy aims to drive Cardano’s Web3 adoption by investing into a variety of Cardano-native and non-Cardano Web3 technologies that can provide interoperable solutions and services to Cardano’s users.
To fulfill this investment strategy, EMURGO Ventures will focus its activities on the following three areas:
- Invest into Layer-2 solutions addressing blockchain scalability and interoperability to bring more potential Web3 decentralized applications (dApps) in DeFi, gaming, and more to Cardano. This will broaden the programming languages that can be used to develop dApps that are interoperable with Cardano.
- Invest into established high-caliber Web3 startups to work closely together on bringing proven, user-friendly features to Cardano. Collaborating with these startups will help the development of Cardano in the long run as well as the development of the blockchain industry as a whole to bring forth real Web3 use cases.
- Invest into established industries that display synergy with Cardano’s Web3 to accelerate the expansion of Cardano’s community and developer talent pool. Industries with large communities that can benefit from Cardano’s technology such as retail and edutech can contribute to the overall growth of the Cardano Web3 ecosystem by helping to onboard new users and developers.
To execute its strategy, EMURGO Ventures also today announced the following appointments:
- Takashi Hayashida has been appointed Managing Partner of EMURGO Ventures. Hayashida will oversee the investment arm’s overall activities and portfolios. Hayashida has over 20 years of experience in traditional finance. He has over 10 years of experience in mainly Commodities Derivatives at Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and Merrill Lynch. And he also has over 10 years of experience in private equity fund management focusing on corporate investments at all stages.
Hayashida’s deep understanding of traditional finance will help to create financial frameworks and manage the company’s financial operations ahead of the anticipated growth of the Web3 market in the years to come.
- Kaimin Hu has been appointed Partner of EMURGO Ventures. Hu will be tasked with identifying Cardano Web3 startups and middleware companies, and to support the growth of its portfolio companies. Hu has been involved in the fintech and blockchain industries for 8 years with a range of experiences in product management, strategic investments, and go-to-market strategies.
Hu’s extensive experience and industry network will help to assess the growth potential of its portfolio companies.
“There is no doubt that blockchain will be a foundation for Web3. Our investment strategy and new leadership hires demonstrate that EMURGO Ventures is here to support Web3 startups reach their full potential on Cardano and broaden Cardano’s community,” said EMURGO Founder & Group CEO Ken Kodama.
About EMURGO Ventures
EMURGO Ventures is a wholly owned investment subsidiary of parent company EMURGO Ptd. Ltd. and invests into a variety of startups and middleware solutions companies to drive Cardano’s Web3 adoption.
EMURGO Ptd. Ltd. has offices in Singapore, India, and Indonesia, the U.S., and a roster of global clients & partners. To connect and learn more, visit https://dev.emurgo.io.
For more information:
Albert Kim
Global PR Manager
