The Solana Foundation, overseers of the upstart layer-1 proof of stake (PoS) Solana blockchain protocol, announced today it has partnered with exchanges Huobi and Gate Labs, plus investment funds NGC Ventures and HashKey Group, in addition to MATH, a multi-platform cross-chain wallet, to launch five strategic investment funds to accelerate the development of key projects in the China region and provide continued support to businesses building on Solana.
By bringing a total of $100 million USD of new capital into the Solana ecosystem, market-ready projects emerging from the Solana Season hackathon will be able to access dedicated investment and resources to scale their communities and accelerate adoption.
“Solana is dedicated to the long-term growth of each and every project and developer who chooses to build on Solana. We are thrilled to have the support of our new strategic partners, Huobi, Gate Labs, NGC Ventures, HashKey, and MATH Global Foundation as we continue to build a censorship-resistant and community-centered ecosystem.”
– Anatoly Yakovenko, President of the Solana Foundation
Huobi
Huobi’s fund will focus on projects building infrastructure-related products, specifically those constructing middleware and DeFi infrastructure. Huobi brings nearly a decade of experience to the table and will provide strategic guidance on market insights, financing, mechanism design, and marketing support for post-investment projects.
“Huobi has long been focused on innovative blockchain infrastructure. Solana is now creating revolutionary changes in the underlying hardware for performance enhancement, which is both rare and valuable. We believe that by working within the Solana ecosystem, we can help develop the next generation of progressive and avant-garde blockchain projects. These projects aim to accomplish what other public chains cannot support or realize.”
– Unica Yin, Director of Huobi Investment Team and Huobi Defi Labs
Gate Labs
Through Gate Labs’ fund, projects building on Solana will be granted access to growth opportunities within new markets, more specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. As the investment arm of the Gate.io exchange, Gate Labs will help projects gain exposure to global audiences and support the long-term formulation of brand awareness.
“Established in January of this year, Gate Labs was founded with a mission to provide entrepreneurs within the blockchain sector the developmental opportunities and services they need. We look forward to working with the Solana Foundation to empower talented entrepreneurs and exceptional projects who are innovating with blockchain technology.”
– Lin Han from Gate Labs
NGC Ventures and HashKey Group
The second and third funds have been established by NGC Ventures and HashKey Group. NGC Ventures will focus on offering mentorship since historically, they have emphasized development, hiring, and prudent treasury and financial management.
“One of Asia’s key strengths is the unique blockchain community that has developed over the past five years. As a key member of the APAC blockchain community, HashKey is uniquely positioned to support the growth of blockchain projects in the region thanks to the extensive domain knowledge of our leadership team and our expansive network. We look forward to doing so alongside The Solana Foundation.”
– Ryan Chen of HashKey
Through leveraging their experience from investing in many successful projects including Theta, Chainlink, Algorand, Solana, Polkadot, and Filecoin, NGC Ventures will bring invaluable relationships to projects in the Solana Ecosystem. HashKey, a digital asset management and financial technology, aims to bring additional resources and provide guidance to projects looking to access institutional and retail markets.
“NGC Ventures is thrilled to be an active investor within the Solana Ecosystem. We look forward to the opportunity to invest in projects with innovative use cases that solve an immediate problem.”
– Roger Lim, Founding Partner at NGC
MATH
The final fund, established by MATH Global Foundation, the Singapore-based team behind the development of MathWallet, will focus on global investments and interoperable solutions with over 66+ public chains to the Solana ecosystem. Following its successful integration with Solana into its wallet app, MATH’s investment will provide capital in addition to technical resources geared at supporting new communities who want to access its fast-growing infrastructure and subscriber traffic.
“The impressive growth of the Solana ecosystem over the last few months have driven enormous momentum for the entire decentralized economy. We are committed to continuing to support the developments and innovations of the Solana ecosystem and look forward to investing in the best and brightest builders around the world through this new fund.”
– Frank Fu, CEO of Math Global Foundation
