Bonfire Union, the ecosystem investment fund of Mask Network, announces the completion of a $42 million fundraise.
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Bonfire Union, the ecosystem investment fund of Mask Network, announces the completion of a $42 million fundraise.
Bonfire Union aims to become the "Web3 Tencent Investment."
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
Cyberworld, July 6, 2022 — Bonfire Union, the fund manager for the Mask Network ecosystem, today announced the successful closing of its first fund (the "Fund"), raising a total of $42 million. As the first fund dedicated to social ecosystems launched since July 2021, this milestone reflects the foresight of Bonfire Union’s investment strategy and its leading role in advancing the Web3 social ecosystem.
The Fund will make direct investments in the Web3 open network space, including decentralized applications, middleware, platforms, and protocols. It will focus on identifying and investing globally in outstanding Web3 startups and projects, balancing financial returns, social impact, and contributions to decentralized ecosystem development. Specifically, the Fund will leverage Mask Network’s leadership in the Web3 social ecosystem to invest in and integrate key components across the industry, collectively building a decentralized Web3 future. Bonfire Union aims to become the "Tencent Investment of Web3."
Cecilia Li, Partner at Bonfire Union, said: "Bonfire Union is positioned to be a vital player in the rapidly growing next-generation social ecosystem. Our strategic co-investment approach enhances overall capital efficiency and increases value for both Mask Network and our portfolio companies. We aim to diversify risk by building a broad portfolio across the open network stack while promoting healthy, long-term integration and growth within the Web3 landscape."
Over the past year since operations began, the Fund has already deployed nearly $20 million across a significant number of projects, primarily focused on three core areas: Web3 social, infrastructure, and gaming & entertainment (including NFTs, GameFi, and the metaverse). For each of these domains, Bonfire maintains strong and well-defined investment theses. Through product integrations, media support, ecosystem empowerment, and fundraising assistance, the Fund has consistently led the industry in creating value for its portfolio companies. Backed by a standout investment team and native Web3 investment philosophy, the Fund has achieved over 2x returns on invested capital—even in volatile market conditions—and has already realized several exits.
Notable portfolio investments include:
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Web3 Social: RSS3 (decentralized information distribution), CyberConnect (decentralized social graph), and Tapz (Web3 forum).
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Infrastructure: Meson Network (decentralized CDN), ArDrive (decentralized storage), Scroll (zkEVM Layer 2 solution), and Transak (fiat on-ramp)
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Gaming & Entertainment: Thetan Arena (play-to-earn multiplayer battle arena game), RCT (AI-generated games and blockchain content), Splinterlands (collectible trading digital card game), and Highstreet (massively multiplayer online role-playing game)
Going forward, the Fund will continue actively sourcing and evaluating projects across the Web3 landscape, completing its ecosystem build-out in Web3 social and further solidifying its leadership. In infrastructure, the Fund aims to identify top-tier projects, with Mask Network serving as an early adopter and potential major partner. The Fund will also place greater emphasis on zero-knowledge proofs and decentralized storage ecosystems. In the metaverse segment, Bonfire will leverage its leadership in Web3 social to continue identifying the most promising gaming, content, brand, and technology teams.
The Bonfire Union investment team comprises more than 10 professionals located around the world, bringing together expertise in engineering, product, marketing growth, entrepreneurship, legal, and top-tier venture capital. Additionally, deep technical resources from Mask Network empower the investment team to conduct thorough technical due diligence and accurately identify opportunities and risks.
"Some members of our investment team also hold key roles within Mask Network, enabling close interaction and collaboration with the operational teams. This provides us with a unique advantage throughout the investment process—from sourcing and evaluation to post-investment support. This value-add effect is unmatched by purely financial investors," added Taylor Zhang, Head of the Mask Network Ecosystem and Partner at Bonfire Union.
Mask Network itself is backed by global investors including Digital Currency Group, Alameda Research, Binance, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Protocol Labs, Arweave, FreeS, Y2Z, HashKey, Hash Global, SevenX, IOSG Ventures, SNZ, and Fundamental Labs. Additional investors include current and former executives from leading Web3 companies and projects such as Coinbase, Gitcoin, and DeBank—many of whom have now become LPs in Bonfire Union. Mask Network will also continue allocating a significant portion of corporate funds and employee co-investment into the Fund.
Independent LPs in the Bonfire ecosystem fund also include numerous former or current executives and partners from various industries, including top U.S.-dollar venture capital firms (such as Qiming Venture Partners), leading financial institutions (like Silicon Valley Bank and Fosun Group), and major internet companies, who participate primarily through personal or family office investments.
Suji Yan, Founding Partner of Bonfire Union, said: "We are honored to collaborate with top-tier investors from different regions who share our vision: growing alongside the next generation of social ecosystems through strategic investment, bridging the gap from monopolistic Web2 to an open Web3, and ultimately returning power to users."
About Bonfire Union
As the ecosystem fund of Mask Network, Bonfire is dedicated to investing in components of the open network. Leveraging Mask Network’s strategic position as middleware for the next-generation social web, Bonfire aims to systematically integrate these components across the industry.
Bonfire Union aspires to be the "Tencent Investment of Web3." With rich strategic resources and technical support from the Mask Network ecosystem, Bonfire has a unique ability to identify and invest in future Web3 unicorn companies at an early stage and empower them for success.
About Mask Network
Mask Network is a social network infrastructure project that connects Web2 and Web3 to build an open internet ecosystem and return data ownership to users. Mask Network achieves this vision through two primary approaches:
(1) Applications — Browser extensions and mobile apps that seamlessly integrate Web3 decentralized applications into traditional social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Integrated dApps include NFT avatars, Uniswap, OpenSea, Snapshot, Initial Twitter Offering, red packets, and RSS3-powered Web3 personal profiles.
(2) Protocols — Next.ID, a decentralized identity aggregation protocol: enables users to own unified and verifiable identity graphs across Web2 and Web3. Next.ID is the world’s first ID aggregation service capable of connecting and consolidating data from multiple Web2 and Web3 accounts or addresses—including Twitter, Facebook, and Ethereum—and assessing connection strength to prevent phishing and Sybil attacks. Next.ID has already integrated with projects such as RSS3, Interface.social, SwapChat, and Web3.bio.
Media Contact
Bonfire Union:bonfire@mask.io
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