Web3 is a relatively new space compared to its technological counterparts. However, the commotion generated by the inevitable arrival of Web3 has made digital natives vibrate. The idea of ​​blockchain, metaverse, crypto, NFT, DeFi, GameFi, etc. enabled by the Web3 revolution has been gaining ground.

The good news is that India is one of the pioneers in developing technology for the Web3 revolution. According to a new survey by NASSCOM, India accounts for 11 percent of the talent in crypto and Web3, making it the third largest market. There are up to 450 new Web3 companies already present in the country. The space witnessed a total investment of $1.3 billion in the past two years (through April 2022). What’s exciting is that efforts are being made to further strengthen the system with some of these startups (unicorns) becoming investors.

Ashish Singhal, co-founder of CoinSwitch Kuber, recently announced his penchant for growing the ecosystem by announcing the ‘Web3 Discovery Fund’. The fund will identify and finance high-potential Web3 startups. The corpus would be approximately $10 million. Wallet startups would be able to access CoinSwitch’s internal capabilities, ecosystem network, and a strong user base of 18 million, which would result in startups getting up and running immediately as they will be able to introduce the product to the market faster and more effectively. .

CoinSwitch Web3 Discovery Fund is an AWS Activate Provider, which means startups in the fund’s early-stage portfolio would be eligible to apply for the AWS Activate Portfolio and receive AWS Credits, technical support, training, resources, and more to accelerate their growth. . In addition, the fund could select and provide a single window of access to top investment partners such as Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Woodstock Fund and Elevation Capital.

“At CoinSwitch, we have always believed that Web3 will be made in India. With Crypto and Web3, India has, for the first time, the opportunity to build the backbone of the Internet in India. Realizing this dream will require a joint effort of unicorns, new smaller companies, builders and policy makers.The CoinSwitch Web3 Discovery Fund is an effort to make this dream of building a Made-in-India Web3 possible.It is a venture capital fund, an incubator, a mentor and an accelerator of growth integrated into one,” Singhal said in an interaction with Indian entrepreneur.

Then there are other Web3 unicorns, including CoinDCX, 5ire, and Polygon, which have also started their own capital initiatives. The CoinDCX Venture fund, CoinDCX’s equity initiative, has investments in companies such as Router, Taki and Syndr.

“We continue to be very excited about what entrepreneurs are building in the web3 space and are actively investing. We will continue to invest in different sectors within web3 and are actively working on our value-added framework and how we can help our portfolio companies grow We are playing our part in making India an epicenter for web3 innovation and making CoinDCX Ventures one of the leading web3 VCs globally, said Rohit Jain, MD, CoinDCX Ventures.

CoinDCX Ventures aims to grow and strengthen the Web3 ecosystem in India. The company feels responsible for growing the country’s capabilities to develop the Web3 ecosystem and establish India as a global blockchain and crypto hub in the future.

Polygon co-founded by Sandeep Nailwal has also invested in different startups like Samudai, Arcana, Coinshift to name a few.

“I’m a de facto investor in Indian startups. I do it as a way of giving back to India. I think being there gives them a boost so they can go into a venture capital fund and raise more money.” funds,” said Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder and CEO of Polygon.

5ire is new to the investment game as Pratik Gauri, founder and CEO, is starting to invest in the ecosystem.

“As an investor, you see not only investment opportunities, but also innovators that you want to succeed and join because they have a great idea that should be nurtured and you should act as its advocate. The fifth industrial revolution is the bold idea of ​​aligning sustainability with profitability to unlock human potential. As an investor, I look for impact and invest enthusiastically where I see a solution that has genuine or potential impact,” said Pratik Gauri, founder of 5ire.

Despite the current situation of the global web3 market, India continues to push forward strongly in the troubled waters. The sector is going through a phase of uncertainty. However, the consensus around the situation is that India emerges victorious. Web3 startups are coming to the fore making India a rich country in Web3 resources. Founders-turned-investors are now actively looking for Web3 startups to invest in as they look to push the ecosystem to greater heights and are looking for projects with genuine potential for impact, complementing their efforts for the same.