Instant Messaging and Connected Services Company ‘LINE’ recently announced a cryptocurrency investment fund of $10 million USD. The fund will be handled by its subsidiary called Unblock Corporation, which is the company’s latest blockchain venture.
Launched in 2018, ‘Unblock Ventures’ is a South-Korea based subsidiary, which focuses on research, education, and other blockchain-based services. Pertaining to Unblock Ventures, LINE has confirmed that the capital gained will be utilized in fueling early-stage startups.
LINE is one of the most popular instant messaging platforms of East Asia region, and crossed more than 500 million users in 2016. Something to be noted here is that, during the launch of Unblock Ventures, LINE stated that the subsidiary will be integrated into the parent organization, meaning that the latter will share the user base of the former, which currently holds more than 200 million registered users. This puts Unblock Ventures in a comfortable position in terms of collection, which is why LINE plans to extend the capital limit, in future.
A couple of months back, LINE also launched a cryptocurrency exchange, which marked the official entry of the platform into crypto-trading with more than 30 cryptocurrencies on its trading list.
With the launch of a crypto-investment fund, LINE has become a classic example of how present-day investors and VCs are shifting from conventional investments to investing in blockchain-based early-stage startups.
Lately, some of the biggest venture capitals have actively invested in cryptocurrencies with big names like SparkLabs Group, Draper Associates, LightSpeed and more, injecting more than $100 million so far in 2018. And if you look closely, the irony behind VCs’ rising interest in blockchain investments is that instead of being disrupted by crowdfunding model that ICOs brought to light, VCs have become one of the major capital sources for blockchain firms and startups.
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