Her focus is on investing in sustainable projects that accelerate widespread web3 adoption.
Crypto exchange Binance has appointed co-founder and CMO Yi He to lead Binance Labs, the company’s venture capital and incubation arm.
She will oversee Binance Labs’ global strategy and day-to-day operations, while targeting investments in “capable, driven founders who will play a role in shaping the future of the industry,” the company wrote in an announcement on Wednesday.
“As a leading player in the space, my goal is to help define the industry standard by identifying and supporting sustainable projects and building an ecosystem of quality blockchain solutions that empowers the entire industry,” Yi said in a statement.
“To expedite widespread adoption, we need to focus our resources on supporting those projects that will push the boundaries of Web3 technology and create products that provide solutions to real-world problems,” she added.
In addition to her new responsibilities in Binance Labs, Yi will continue leading key business units at Binance, including customer support, institutional business, marketing, Binance P2P and Binance Earn, the company added.
Yi was part of the founding team that launched Binance in 2017, and has served as the exchange’s CMO since then. Before Binance, she worked as a vice president at Yixia Technology, a Chinese mobile video tech company, where she led branding strategy and marketing operations. She was also part of OKCoin, the digital asset exchange she co-founded in 2014.
Yi’s appointment was announced two months after the departure of Bill Qian, the previous Binance Labs’ head, who The Block revealed had left the company for personal reasons. At roughly the same time, executive director Nicole Zhang left Binance Labs after a stint of more than two years at the company.
Binance Labs has invested in more than 200 portfolio projects with total assets of $7.5 billion. The firm recently raised $500 million to back startups that push crypto adoption. The fund was Binance Labs’ first fund with outside capital, with DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital among its investors.
