The Open Network Ventures, founded by former TON Foundation leaders, has officially launched a $40M fund to support early-stage crypto initiatives within the TON ecosystem.
Former senior members of the TON Foundation have established a new venture capital firm to facilitate the connection between investors and builders and increase development and innovation on TON.
According to a press release that was provided to Cointelegraph, TON Ventures will concentrate on consumer applications that leverage Telegram’s social platform:
“TON Ventures will […] leverage Telegram’s social graph, Telegram Mini Apps, and tools and infrastructure that support founders as they build mass appeal applications.”
Support for specific initiatives
The new VC firm will provide financial support, and selected initiatives will have the opportunity to “leverage the team’s global resources and extensive experience.”
The press release also states that the selected projects will receive various benefits, such as “access to strategic partnerships,” media support, and Telegram Ads.”
In an interview, Ian Wittkopp, the former director of TON Accelerator, disclosed that the venture capital firm will “offer new support and capital to early-stage TON-based startups.”
“The fund will focus its support on early-stage projects — anywhere from the idea stage to a built project — that are relevant and exciting to the masses. We hope this encourages builders in our ecosystem to experiment freely.”
The founding team
The new VC firm was established by early members of the TON Foundation and “former TON builders,” who combined their previous experience in supporting successful TON Web3 games such as Gatto and Catizen.
A former gaming director at the TON Foundation, Wittkopp and Inal Kardan will serve as the leaders of TON Ventures.
Wittkopp stated in the press release that the team’s objective is to facilitate the connection between “visionary investors and cutting-edge projects” to expedite the development of the TON ecosystem as follows:
“Now, we have the exciting opportunity to share our insights and strategies for thriving in the unique design space created by TON and Telegram, empowering a new generation of innovators and builders.”
TON gasless fees
In collaboration with Tonkeeper, the TON Core team introduced the W5 smart wallet standard on July 25 to facilitate gasless transactions on the TON blockchain.
The new W5 wallet standard allows users to cover gas fees with Tether when transmitting USDT and Notcoin (NOT) when transferring NOT.
Oleg Andreev, the CEO of Tonkeeper, stated to Cointelegraph that the development would facilitate the onboarding of new users by enabling them to “interact with TON’s ecosystem” without needing Toncoin (TON).
