FUNDING | Standard Chartered Venture Arm to Raise $250 Million Digital Asset Fund in 2026 – Eyes Africa as Strategic Frontier

Standard Chartered’s innovation and venture arm, SC Ventures, has announced plans to launch a $250 million digital asset fund in 2026, targeting investments in the intersection of blockchain and financial services globally.

At the same time, SC Ventures is also preparing a separate $100 million fund dedicated to African investments, underscoring its intent to become a significant backer of fintech, Web3, and infrastructure startups across the continent.

The $250 million fund will focus on digital-asset opportunities within financial services, including custody, compliance, tokenization, hybrid fiat/crypto infrastructure, and other enabling technologies It will be backed in part by investors from the Middle East, emphasizing the growing influence of Gulf capital in global blockchain investment.

SC has clarified that it continuously evaluates opportunities “through investments or joint ventures” and is intentionally focusing on dynamic regions like Africa and the Middle East.

The Africa Play

The separate $100 million Africa fund is intended to back startups across technology, fintech, and possibly Web3. It’s not yet clear whether the African fund will carry a strong digital-asset mandate or lean more broadly into innovation.

For African founders, this represents a meaningful opportunity: a large, institutional-backed capital pool explicitly aimed at the African innovation ecosystem.

SC Ventures has already positioned itself in the digital asset space via its investments and ventures: Libeara (tokenization), Zodia Markets (digital asset trading), and Zodia Custody (institutional custody).

The timing of the fund comes amid volatility in digital asset treasuries (DATs). SC has publicly cautioned that many treasury firms have slipped below critical market net asset value (mNAV) thresholds, which places stress on their ability to issue new equity or accumulate further crypto assets.

In its analysis, SC suggests that in this environment, those with low-cost capital, staking yield, scale, and strong infrastructure will consolidate advantage.

As global banks like Standard Chartered bring deeper involvement, there may be pressure on African regulators to adopt clearer, more accommodating frameworks for digital assets and stablecoins. Local projects that align with real-world use cases (e.g. cross-border payments, digital remittances, tokenization of assets, compliance tooling) are more likely to attract attention from such funds.

Stay tuned to BitKE Updates on Web3 developments in Africa.

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