The Graph Backers Launch $205M Ecosystem Fund to Provide Grants to Dapp Builders

The backers of The Graph, a protocol that aims to make on-chain data more accessible to decentralized application (dapp) projects, have launched the first fund to support developers building for the system.

The $205 million pot was announced Thursday by Multicoin Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, gumi Cryptos Capital, NGC Ventures, CoinDesk parent Digital Currency Group and HashKey.

The fund will provide grants to teams building dapps using The Graph’s querying technology spanning sectors as diverse as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), marketplaces, cross-chain infrastructure and the metaverse – a shared, interactive and potentially immersive digital environment.

“Whether consumers are on board with Web 3 or not, Web 3 is making its way to us,” Deng Chao, managing director of HashKey Capital, said in a statement. “Developers need decentralized Web 3 solutions, like The Graph, that are designed to be accessible.”

Developers use The Graph to access blockchain data through open inter-program communication protocols (API) called subgraphs. The retrieved data is used to power a wide array of dapps, making The Graph a key component of Web 3 infrastructure.

Growth-orientated crypto projects often start funds to lure developers into building applications for their blockchain or to incentivize developers to use their product. Last month, ​​privacy-focused blockchain Secret Network announced $400 million in funding, including a $225 million ecosystem fund. The Near blockchain announced a staggering $800 million in grants funding toward the end of last year, including a $250 million ecosystem fund.

“Many of the blockchain applications and protocols that people are interacting with today are powered by centralized platforms and solutions providers,” explained Craig Burel, a partner at Reciprocal Ventures, one of The Graph’s backers.

“In the near term, it will still remain this way until more decentralized alternatives are available. To expedite that future, we have come together with some of the biggest players in the crypto industry to provide strategic capital and resources to developers aligned with The Graph’s mission to bring web3 to fruition,” Burel said in a statement.

The Graph Foundation raised $50 million last month in a private sale of its GRT token. The sale included allocations to Tiger Global, Reciprocal Ventures and Fintech Collective. The project planned to use the funds to provide grants to developers and toward protocol research and development.

In October The Graph launched on the NEAR blockchain, marking the first time the product has run on a blockchain that’s not compatible with Ethereum.