VanEck, a global investment management firm, is expanding its venture capital presence with the launch of a $30 million fund focused on investments in fintech, digital assets, or artificial intelligence (AI) companies in pre-seed or seed stages.

About 25-30 projects will be selected, with funding ranging from $500,000 to $1 million.

Key areas of interest:

• Tokenization

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VanEck Ventures, with $30 million in assets under management (AUM), marks a strategic expansion for the firm into the venture capital space. It is to be led by Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez, both formerly heading Circle Ventures, the venture arm of the stablecoin issuer Circle.

The fund aims to back projects that can offer both strategic and financial upside, and has already invested in several initiatives.

“From pioneering an approach to gold investing in 1968 to recognizing the disruptive potential of Bitcoin in 2017, embracing a long-term view on transformative opportunities has always been part of our investment philosophy. This fund extends that vision into early-stage ventures,” said Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck.

This fund seeks out projects developing within the application layer while maintaining an infrastructure-agnostic approach, including tokenized assets and next-generation financial solutions.

VanEck, a 69-year-old asset manager, has significant plans in the digital asset domain, beyond its various crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

In an interview with CoinDesk, VanEck Portfolio Manager Pranav Kanade mentioned that the CEO aims for 15% of the firm’s AUM to be in crypto, a notable increase from the current approximately 1%.