Qiming Venture Partners Executive Director Tang Yi: Optimistic about the long-term development of Web3, supports Chinese entrepreneurs

Qiming Venture Partners is a global leading venture capital firm with 17 years of experience in the VC field. Since 2019, the company has ventured into the cryptocurrency space and has invested in 16-17 projects to date. Its investment strategy mainly focuses on supporting Chinese entrepreneurs and seeking opportunities in the global crypto market.

Tang Yi stated that the company holds a long-term optimistic attitude towards the cryptocurrency and Web3 industry. He believes that, from the perspective of technology and talent, this market has great potential, attracting many outstanding engineers and developers to innovate in various fields. The original intention of Crypto is to build a value network where users can own and quickly exchange digital assets, value, and identity.

Although Qiming Venture Partners primarily focuses on Series A or B investments, they have adopted a more flexible strategy in the Web3 sector. Given the early nature of the industry, the firm also engages in some seed and pre-seed investments. At the same time, they are willing to invest more funds to support the ecological development of projects that have entered the growth stage or have a higher valuation.

In terms of investment direction, Qiming Venture Partners has a broad coverage. They focus on user entry and infrastructure projects, such as the self-custodial wallet imToken. At the same time, they have also invested in some projects aimed at institutional users, such as the crypto finance company Matrixport. Regarding underlying infrastructure, they are optimistic about Ethereum's transition from PoW to PoS and have invested in two staking service providers.

Regarding the current market situation, Tang Yi stated that while many people are optimistic about the market improving before the end of next year, he believes the market direction is difficult to predict. He advised the invested companies to maintain sufficient cash reserves and preferably have sustainable income and value capture capabilities to weather a potential prolonged downturn.

In terms of investment strategy, Qiming Venture Partners hopes to maintain a stable investment pace, unaffected by bull and bear cycles. However, in practice, during a bull market, due to intense competition, the investment pace tends to be faster; during a bear market, it is more rational, allowing for deeper due diligence.

When discussing the challenges facing the widespread adoption of Web3, Tang Yi pointed out that current Web3 products still have a significant gap in user scale and experience compared to Web2. He believes that the acceptance and comfort level of cryptocurrency payment experiences still need improvement, and there are many shortcomings in the underlying infrastructure. Achieving widespread adoption may take longer and is not a problem that can be solved in the short term.

Tang Yi holds a positive attitude towards Web2 entrepreneurs transitioning to Web3. He believes that these entrepreneurs possess strong technical skills, execution ability, and product awareness. As long as they take the time to understand Web3 users and industry demands, their growth will be rapid.

Regarding the phenomenon of some Web3 entrepreneurs shifting to the AI field, Tang Yi expressed his understanding. He believes this is due to the current lack of new application scenarios in the Crypto industry, while significant breakthroughs have occurred in the underlying technology of the AI field. However, he cautioned entrepreneurs that whether in AI or Crypto, challenges will be faced at the application level, requiring long-term exploration. He suggested that entrepreneurs choose their direction based on their own interests and abilities, and be aware that both fields carry uncertainties.