Solana Ventures announces new $150 million fund for blockchain gaming

Solana Ventures, the investment arm of Solana Labs, announced Tuesday a new $150 million fund to back blockchain gaming startups.

The fund has been launched in partnership with Forte, a blockchain gaming startup that recently raised $725 million in new funding, and Griffin Gaming Partners, a VC firm focused on the gaming sector and a lead investor in Forte.

The fund backed by the trio is denominated in dollars and not in Solana (SOL) tokens, a Solana Labs spokesperson told The Block. It plans to invest in gaming startups building on the Solana blockchain. Solana Ventures contends that the network's throughput of 65,000 transactions per second and average per-transaction cost of $0.00025 makes it an ideal blockchain for gaming applications.

The new fund will invest in startups' equity as well as token rounds and expects to be fully deployed over the next 18 months, said the spokesperson.

This is the second blockchain gaming-focused fund Solana Ventures has announced. Last month, the firm launched a $100 million fund in partnership with Lightspeed Venture Partners and FTX.

Blockchain gaming has seen an increased investment activity in recent months, as The Block has reported previously.