Co-founded by Neal Stephenson, the writer who coined the term “Metaverse” and Peter Vessenes, who co-founded the Bitcoin Foundation
Lamina1, a Metaverse-focused venture, today announced the launch of Lamina1 Ecosystem Fund (L1EF). The fund offers investors direct access to co-invest in early-stage Layer 1 blockchain projects, while providing Web3 creators a vehicle to raise capital pre-launch.
At a time when many Web3 founders are concerned about the availability of capital amid a market downturn, this effort seeks to widen their access to fresh capital.
Lamina1 has plans to include diverse portfolio projects in this ecosystem fund, ranging across fashion, music, AI, immersive experiences, Defi and DAOs. Accessible via the venture platform AngelList, only accredited investors are permitted to take part.
Co-founded by Neal Stephenson, the American writer who coined the term “Metaverse” and Peter Vessenes, who co-founded the Bitcoin Foundation, the venture said that the Fund will streamline the deal flow and has seen “an astonishing amount of interest” from prospective business partners and investors.
In a letter to investors, the company said that early-stage Web3 startups are often faced with funding challenges, as the projects’ tokens cannot be used before their mainnets launch. The ecosystem fund helps bridge this gap with “hard” fiat currency deployable ahead of mainnet launch.
With rolling funds, also known as subscription funds, fund managers can get started with relatively little capital, as the fund can remain open to new investors each quarter.
For an investor, rolling funds may make an attractive option because it opens up opportunities for those who previously lacked access to venture investing.
L1EF is offering a subscription starting at $2,500 quarterly over a minimum period of four quarters.
The company said in a statement that the rolling fund is designed to “balance ‘visionary venture’ against ‘sensible’ near-term return style value investments that bring participants to the chain, more certainly and more cheaply, than doing only early-stage venture”.
“Lamina1 is in a unique position given the incredible volume of inquiries we receive from those building the Open Metaverse every day,” said Peter Vessenes, Co-Founder of Lamina1. “The team has a front row seat to all happening in the ecosystem and essentially gets a ‘first look’ at what many of the most compelling creators and storytellers of our time are doing, building, making, and producing around the world. We want to share that front row seat with as many people as possible.”
Lamina is not the first to drive the development of Open Metaverse, leading web3 brands including Animoca Brands, The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, and Decentraland have earlier banded together to form the Open Metaverse Alliance.
