TL;DR

The team behind the project reiterated some of the most important details of the recently launched Pi Network Ventures fund, which plans to invest $100 million in innovative startups. The substantial amount is held in both USD and PI tokens.

Pi Network Ventures: The Details

It all started with a mysterious yet hyping tweet ten days ago when the official X account behind the project said a big announcement would come on May 14. The community went wild with speculations but their number one possibility a listing on Binance didnt come to fruition.

The actual announcement outlined the creation of a dedicated investment fund called Pi Network Ventures, which will distribute up to $100 million toward startups and businesses that advance the utility, adoption, and real-impact of Pi.

The details behind the new initiative, published by the team earlier this week but reiterated in a more recent post, indicate that it was established through the Pi Foundation, which is an ownerless organization intended to steer the long-term development of the Pi ecosystem. The PI holdings in the new fund come from 10% of the tokens that are allocated for foundation reserves.

The main objectives for the Pi Network Ventures are threefold, but at their core, they aim to benefit builders, businesses, and most importantly, the global community of Pioneers:

Boost Pi utility: Support startups and businesses that integrate Pi into their products, services, and customer experiences.

Enable more of the world’s production onto Pi Network: Get more real-world production processes, whether in the form of apps, transactions or companies, onto Pi by investing early on in startups and companies that create such processes.

Bring Pi to the real world: Empower real-life use cases and applications that demonstrate Pi’s unique value as a widely distributed, accessible, and usable cryptocurrency.

The upcoming investors will range from early-stage startups to Series B funding rounds and beyond, continues the post.

How Does it Differ?

The announcement outlined two key reasons why Pi Network Ventures differs from other similar cryptocurrency ecosystem programs. First, it said that Pis alternative will focus heavily on general technology sectors, including generative AI and AI applications, FinTech, embedded payments, e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, social networks, and real-world consumer and enterprise applications.

Second, all of its processes are supposed to mirror the practices of traditional Silicon Valley VC firms in the way it sources, selects, and vets projects in which it will invest.

The team further noted that Pioneers (investors holding the PI token) will benefit because the new initiative will create more utility for the asset, enhance the ecosystem, and incentivize high-quality integrations.