EOS VC: Mass Adoption of Blockchain Through the EOS Ecosystem

Block.one’s EOS VC arm is a US$1 billion business unit dedicated to driving the use of blockchain technology through investments, and specifically focuses on projects and entrepreneurs building with or supporting the company’s EOSIO open source protocol.

EOSIO is Block.one’s first project and is a global initiative to create a blockchain infrastructure that can replace existing models of digital commerce and communications. The EOS public blockchain was launched by a decentralized community in June and already has over 150 unique applications running on it.

London and the UK are important markets and blockchain ‘hotspots.’ We’ve come here for our third EOS Global Hackathon, part of a competitive series of five global events Block.one will host this year. In addition, one of our fund managers, the City of London-based SVK Crypto, launched a US$50 million EOSIO-focused fund here on September 25.

EOS VC awards the prizes at the EOS hackathons, which will total more than US$1.5 million across all five events in 2018. Our next event is in San Francisco in November. The ultimate winner will receive US$500,000 at the finale in December.

We source and invest in EOSIO-focused projects from the hackathons and elsewhere with the goal of expanding the growing EOS ecosystem. The London event was our largest yet and one of the biggest of its type ever in the UK, with approximately 550 people in attendance.

EOS VC is unique amongst venture capital endeavors as it focuses specifically on investing in projects, either directly or through partnership funds, that aim to help further build out the EOS ecosystem. This is part of Block.one’s mission to drive mass adoption of blockchain technology globally.

Our programmes
One of our hackathon-related initiatives is a seed funding program called Hack. Pitch. Launch. and was unveiled at the Sydney event in August. The program allows teams from the events to pitch the ideas developed at the hackathons to EOS VC for the opportunity to receive an investment of US$50,000 to launch their project. Five teams from each of the four hackathon events will receive seed funding.

Building on the momentum from Hack. Pitch Launch., we are also proud to launch a new US$ 2.5 million seed investing effort here in London – 50 by 50. This programme is available to all projects building on EOSIO and continues our mission of assisting EOSIO developers and entrepreneurs to successfully make their ideas a reality by deploying US$50,000 to 50 projects.

To date, 14 projects from this programme are currently in the final stages to receive funding, we aim to complete all 50 investments by the end of 2018.

Our investments are not limited to hackathon projects or the 50 by 50 initiative. Through our partnership fund, which is managed by Galaxy Digital, a US$30 million direct investment was made in Everipedia, a for-profit blockchain encyclopedia co-founded by Larry Sanger, who also co-founded Wikipedia; and we were a lead investor in the US$35 million Series D funding round for open-source distributed virtual reality (VR) platform High Fidelity, with an investment of US$20 million. This funding will allow High Fidelity to increase research, development and testing to integrate virtual reality and blockchain technologies.

What we look for
EOS VC invests across sectors, and focuses on projects that have the likelihood of delivering value through the application of blockchain technology. Sectors include: social media, gaming, entertainment, fintech, healthcare, supply chain and logistics, but we consider ideas from many different verticals.

Aside being built on the EOSIO software, the requirement for funding is not predefined or rigid in structure; rather, we evaluate a variety of companies, entities, ventures and projects for investment on a case-by-case basis.

We are open to projects across sectors, and part of our mission is to help entrepreneurs and projects launch new businesses.

The London hackathon provides the opportunity for blockchain entrepreneurs in Europe to launch a business and pitch for funding across sectors, and EOS VC is keen to support these endeavours.

While in the United Kingdom, we will be looking for projects and individuals that have the passion to build something new, and that have a solution with real world utility. One of the biggest problems that blockchain can solve is around data security and ownership, and projects that look into this issue are particularly interesting. In fact, that was the challenge theme of the London hackathon.

Mike Alexander, CEO, EOS VC