DeFi Protocol Uniswap Launches Crypto-Focused Venture Arm

Uniswap Dives Into Web3 Venture Capital

On Monday, Uniswap Labs (UNI) announced the launch of Uniswap Labs Ventures (ULV), a new division to invest in Web3 projects across numerous categories from infrastructure to developer tools and consumer-facing applications. The investments reportedly will be made directly from the company’s balance sheet.

To head up the new division, the firm is tapping Matteo Leibowitz alongside Uniswap’s chief operating officer, Mary-Catherine Lader. Leibowitz previously worked at Uniswap as a strategy lead in 2020 and prior to that, was a research analyst at The Block for nearly two years.

To date, Uniswap has invested in 11 companies across the web3 ecosystem, including Tenderly, LayerZero, MakerDAO, Aave, Compound Protocol, and PartyDAO. In addition to that, the DeFi protocol has also backed other companies that are in the Ethereum ecosystem.

The past years have seen a rapid explosion of the Web3 venture capital scene. For instance, a Crunchbase report estimated that 200 venture capital deals worth approximately $4 billion were closed in the first two months of 2022. This alone represents 22% of the total seen in the entire year of 2021, which was a record-breaking year.