According to a press release, IOTA’s recently established Ecosystem Foundation will make its first round of investments, giving $10 million to early-stage companies that are centered on digital trade and the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs).
Over the next few weeks, the investments—which will include the recently established tradetech ventures—will be made public. Startups utilizing IOTA will also receive assistance through an accelerator program.
In November, the Foundation was granted regulatory status in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The registration caused a 43% increase in IOTA’s native coin.
IOTA has risen by 20% since then and is currently trading at about 30 cents, riding a tide of widespread optimism in the market. During the same time frame, the larger CoinDesk (CD20) index has increased by 66%.
The first investments will go to startups in trade technology with offices in Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
“By investing in the future of TradeTech, we are not just facilitating smoother trade transactions; we are laying the groundwork for a more interconnected and efficient global trade ecosystem,” said Dominik Schiener, co-founder of IOTA and chairman of the IOTA Foundation. IOTA is an open-source distributed ledger that was released in 2016. It raised $590,000 in an initial coin offering (ICO) eight months earlier.