Major Financial Firms SBI, Sygnum, and Azimut Announce US$75 Million Digital Asset Venture Capital Fund

In an exciting development for the digital asset sector, a joint venture between Japanese financial group SBI Holdings, Swiss-based digital asset bank Sygnum, and European asset manager Azimut Group has launched a venture capital fund of up to US$75 million in Singapore.

The Variable Capital Company (VCC) named SBI Ven Capital VCC, founded in 2021 and managed by SBI Ven Capital, will be the primary fund manager. This VCC invests up to 75 million US dollars in venture capital for startups in the digital securities sector.

Ryosuke Hayashi, the CEO and Managing Director of SBI Ven Capital, expressed his enthusiasm for the new fund, saying, "We are thrilled to bring together like-minded investors and entrepreneurs to shape the future of financial services."

Gerald Goh, Co-Founder and CEO Singapore of Sygnum, also voiced his excitement, stating, "This fund will enable the growth of promising digital assets companies and collectively bring innovative solutions to market."

The fund's investment strategy primarily focuses on Pre-Series A and Series A companies developing blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure, decentralised finance (DeFi) solutions, and regulatory technology tools. Innovative solutions in decentralised applications, regulatory technology, digital exchanges, and tokenization are being witnessed by the partners in the digital asset sector.

SBI Digital Asset Holdings, a subsidiary of SBI Holdings, has also announced it will join forces with Swiss' SIX Digital Exchange to roll out a digital asset exchange based in Singapore, set to go live by 2022.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has granted approvals to several entities to provide digital payment token (DPT) services under Singapore's Payment Services Act. These include Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, DBS' brokerage arm DBS Vickers, and QR code payment solution provider FOMO Pay.

The featured image for this article is an edited photo by Kenneth Koh via Unsplash. This news marks a significant step forward in the digital asset sector, with the new fund aiming to shape the future of financial services in Singapore and beyond.