Avalanche launches fresh $220 million investment fund

The Avalanche Foundation has announced another mammoth scheme to bring more developers to the Avalanche blockchain.

The organization has unveiled a new $220 million investment fund, with contributions coming from the Avalanche Foundation itself, as well as Ava Labs — an Avalanche focused incubator — and investors Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMS Holdings, Republic Capital, R/Crypto Fund, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital and Finality Capital Partners.

Avalanche’s foundation hopes the new investment program, named Blizzard, will attract developers focused on DeFi, enterprise applications, NFTs and culture. The program will assist promising projects with equity investments, token purchases and other kinds of operational support.

The news comes just a few months after Avalanche began touting a $180 million incentive program — a fund that targeted DeFi developers. Half a dozen other blockchains seeking to challenge Ethereum’s dominance have set up developer funds of their own since August.

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

The schemes have packed a punch. Total value locked (TVL) on Avalanche rose from $312 million on August 18 to $2.6 billion on September 14, according to DeFi Llama.

Emin Gün Sirer, director of the Avalanche Foundation, said in a statement that Avalanche has experienced “incredible growth” in users, assets and applications joining the platform in the past two months.

“Blizzard will play a key role in further accelerating this growth, and solidifying Avalanche’s position as the premiere home for projects and people pioneering the next era in our space,” he added.

Update: This article has been updated to clarify that the Blizzard initiative is an investment fund, not an incentive fund. 

For more breaking stories like this, make sure to follow The Block on Twitter.

About Author

Ryan Weeks is deals editor at the The Block, focused on fundraising, M&A and institutional trends in the crypto space, among other things. He is particularly interested in investigative work — so please send tips! Ryan previously worked at Financial News, Dow Jones as a fintech correspondent in London. Prior to that, he wrote for several different publications, including Sifted, AltFi and Wired. Beyond journalism, Ryan is a keen reader and writer. He enjoys all things active, especially running, rugby, climbing and tennis.