Blockchain entrepreneurs in Europe often have trouble finding funding despite their high engineering skills. This is due to a lack of large funds and investment knowledge in this space. The European Investment Fund made a major investment in a venture fund for digital assets and blockchain today.Fabric Ventures, a Luxembourg-based VC, claimed to be backing the Open Economy. The fund has raised $130 million, $30 million of which are coming from the European Investment Fund. The new fund also has 33 partners and founders from Ethereum, PayPal, Square and Google.It is the first EIF-backed fund to be mandated by the EIF to invest in digital assets or blockchain technology.Alain Godard, Chief Executive of EIF, stated: We are delighted to partner with Fabric Ventures in bringing to the European Market this fund specializing Blockchain technologies. This partnership seeks [in Europe] to address the need and unlock financing opportunities to entrepreneurs active in blockchain technologies. This field is of particular strategic importance to the EU and to our global competitiveness.This is the subtext of the EIF's desire to be exposed to these decentralized platforms as a buffer against the more central platforms from the US and China.Yes, Bitcoin's price has fluctuated, but there are now $100 billion in decentralized finance and a $1.5 billion NFT market. This technology is not going anywhere.Fabric doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Many Fabric Ventures team members were involved in Orchestream, Sun Microsystems' Honeycomb Project, Tideway and Yoyo Wallet.Richard Muirhead, Managing Partner, is joined by Max Mersch (partner) and Anil Hansjee (partner). Hansjee is now General Partner following his departure from PayPals Venture Fund, where he was responsible for EMEA. This team has extensive experience in token design and market infrastructure as well as community governance.In 2012, the same team founded Firestartr, which supported Tray.io and Verse as well as Wagestream, Wagestream, Bitstamp and Wagestream.Muirhead stated: It is now widely acknowledged that a web that is user-owned is needed. Amazing people are creating this digital fabric for everyone's benefit. With our new fund, we are thrilled to help those people.Muirhead said on a call to TechCrunch: It is important to notice that the European Commission recognizes that this area has geopolitical importance for the EU bloc. You have on one side the wild west approach to North America and, arguably the other, the surveillance state of China's Communist Party.He stated that the European Commission believes there is a third option for individuals and would like to make use of the new technology. Businesses can also benefit. We can create networks and marketplaces where individuals share their data, and supply chains that allow businesses to share data for mutual benefit. That's the driving view.
