CoinSwitch Comes for Indian Web3 Startups’ Aid Through Funding

CoinSwitch, India’s largest Crypto investing app, announced the launch of Web3 Discovery Fund!

As global investors start to take note of the Indian Web3 ecosystem, Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange, CoinSwitch Kuber, is working on setting up its venture arm to invest in the space.

CoinSwitch, India’s largest Crypto investing app, announced the launch of Web3 Discovery Fund, the company’s corporate venture capital initiative. The fund will invest in and incubate early-stage startups building blockchain solutions for the rapidly evolving Web3 landscape. The Web3 Discovery Fund will invest in and incubate Indian startups and curate them for evaluation by marquee global investors.

Web3 Community in India

Web3, or Web 3.0, represents the next generation of the internet. It is conceptualized on the blockchain or distributed ledger platforms and involves decentralizing the overall structure of the internet. Cryptocurrencies make for one of the most prominent applications of web3 ventures.

In India, while the government has clearly stated that there will be no blanket ban on all technologies related to blockchain or web3, the impending cryptocurrency regulation bill is expected to impose specific restrictions on how crypto tokens are traded and used in the country. The union finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has already announced that India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, is working on a digital version of India’s fiat currency, the rupee – to bring a central bank digital currency (CBDC) into the mainstream fold.

India represents great potential in the form of a growing group of startups working on web3 projects, and the same can help more Indian entrepreneurs make it big globally.

The web3 community in India has risen significantly in response to the desire to bring Cryptocurrencies into the mainstream last year. India has an inflow of developers interested in establishing a wide range of decentralized services, which is among the intriguing array of projects involving Cryptocurrency and other connected sectors. These initiatives piqued the general public’s interest in 2021, but this year might be the year of stabilization.

Aiding Indian Web3 Startups Through Funding

Despite the ongoing crypto winter, there has been a steady influx of capital for Indian web 3 startups. Web3 development and innovation in India witnessed investments worth US$500 million+ in 2021.

Coinswitch’s Web3 Discovery Fund, with an initial corpus of US$10 million, will provide single-window access to investor partners Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Woodstock Fund, Elevation Capital, alongside incubation partner Builders Tribe.

CoinSwitch Web3 Discovery Fund will also be an AWS Activate Provider. The fund’s early-stage portfolio startups can apply for AWS Activate Portfolio and receive AWS credits, technical support, training, resources, and more to accelerate their growth.

Further, the portfolio startups will also benefit from ready access to CoinSwitch’s in-house capabilities, ecosystem network, and 18 million-strong user base, accelerating their product life-cycle strategy.

“The venture program is a result of our firm belief that India will be the launchpad for population-scale Web3 projects. To realize this vision of #MadeinIndia Web3, we have to identify and enable entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to leverage the potential of Crypto to solve real-world problems unique to India. That’s the raison d’être of the Web3 Discovery Fund. I’m absolutely thrilled to work with Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Woodstock Fund, Elevation Capital, and Builders Tribe toward this mission,” said Ashish Singhal, Co-founder, and CEO, CoinSwitch.

Web3 Discovery Fund will be an active investor and provide strategic support for the rapid growth of the portfolio startups.

Founded in 2017 by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar Tiwari, and backed by blue-chip investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, CoinSwitch is evolving into a wealth-tech destination for every Indian.