VanEck Launches $30 Million Ventures Fund for Crypto, AI

Asset manager VanEck has launched VanEck Ventures, a $30 million fund investing in early-stage crypto and AI startups, adding to its existing lineup of crypto exchange-traded funds and private funds.

The fund is run by Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, who both joined from Circle Ventures, the venture investing arm of the stablecoin issuer. They will primarily invest in stablecoin-related startups, such as in remittance and cross-border payment. It’s a bet that stablecoins will emerge as “an open-source banking layer,” Lonergan said. The fund will also invest in AI companies that reduce operational costs of finance firms.

About two-third of the fund’s capital came from outside investors, with the rest coming from VanEck internally. The fund expects to make 25 to 35 investments, with check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $1 million. The fund will make equity investments and also take stakes in the company in exchange for tokens tied to the project.

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrencies designed to maintain a value peg to government-issued currencies, such as a dollar. While they’ve mostly been used for crypto trading so far, banks and payment firms are also exploring ways to use stablecoins. Last week, Visa announced plans to launch a service for banks to issue stablecoins, and global bank messaging network Swift said it will start trials to allow banks transact digital assets on its network next year.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 1955, VanEck had previously embraced offering funds and other products for investing in gold. More recently, it’s been among the traditional fund firms pushing into digital assets, issuing bitcoin and ethereum ETFs that allow investors to trade crypto as easily as stocks. VanEck was the first U.S. fund firm to file paperwork with regulators for a solana ETF in June. It has about 10 people dedicated to the crypto business.