Binance Co-Founder Yi He Appointed As New Head Of Binance Labs
- The venture capital arm of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance Labs, has appointed a new head, Yi He.
- Yi He is also the co-founder of Binance and has played a “pivotal role” in identifying early-stage projects, developers, and founders at the exchange.
On Wednesday, the world’s largest crypto exchange platform, Binance, announced that its co-founder Yi He, will now lead the company’s venture capital arm and incubator, Binance Labs.
Yi, who has been actively involved in Binance Labs operations since its founding, will serve as head of the VC arm. Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao said that the co-founder has played a “pivotal role” in identifying early-stage projects, developers, and founders with the vision and “drive to disrupt those global institutions that no longer serve society effectively.”
“This is the perfect moment for Yi to take on a larger role in Binance Labs as this market presents an unparalleled opportunity to identify those projects with the tenacity to thrive in tough market conditions,”
CZ continued.
At Binance Labs, Yi will oversee both the daily operations and the company’s global strategy. Her main areas of interest will be providing support for infrastructure projects and enhancing utility in cutting-edge blockchain and crypto projects.
Her goal is to “build the standard for the blockchain industry” in order to accelerate the Web3 and blockchain technology adoption, according to the announcement. Under Yi’s direction, Binance Labs aims to place even more emphasis on funding bright, driven entrepreneurs who can help in shaping the future of the sector. Commenting on the new role, Yi stated:
“As a leading player in the space, my goal is to help define the industry standard by identifying and supporting sustainable projects and building an ecosystem of quality blockchain solutions that empowers the entire industry.”
She believes that Web3 will only “truly” become mainstream when the projects enter seamlessly into users’ lives. Therefore, she said that Binance Labs “need to focus [its] resources on supporting those projects that will push the boundaries of Web3 technology and create products that provide solutions to real-world problems.”
Binance Labs is the largest venture capital in the crypto industry by Asset Under Management (AUM), with an unmatched Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC) of 21.0x. Notably, MOIC is a performance metric that compares the value of a current investment to the amount of money you put into it. Moreover, the VC manages total assets of $7.5 billion, which consists of over 200 portfolio projects.
Since its launch, Binance Labs has always been focused on early-stage projects in fundamental verticals, and its investment strategy has resulted in the industry’s most successful projects like FTX, Polygon, Certik, Dune Analytics, and Nym.
On June 1, the team closed a $500 million investment fund with support from several big institutional investors like DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital, aiming to invest in projects with the potential to “expand cryptocurrency use cases and drive the adoption of Web3 and blockchain technologies.”
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
