Ken Kodama, founder of Cardano development lab, Emurgo, recently revealed that the company would invest more than $200 million to boost the ecosystem’s growth over a 3-year period. Kodama disclosed this during the ongoing token 2049 conference.
Emurgo will use the funds to work on projects being built on the Cardano network and projects from other networks whose products are integrated on the Cardano network and their own.
Kodama noted that the funds are from Emurgo’s capital, and the company has set aside $100 million to invest in projects from Africa under its African investment program. According to him, using crypto services for lending and borrowing purposes for everyday living in contrast to speculative purposes was a key growth driver in the region.
The Emurgo founder also admitted that the Cardano network growth has been slow compared to other networks however the network now has the necessary infrastructure to securely expand, and the network will grow significantly over the next few years.
Last week, Cardano’s hugely expected Vasil upgrade went live.
The upgrade will make it possible for smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) to operate on the network without the need for a central administrator.
Cardano joins the Near and Avalanche networks in using a comparable strategy to accelerate the development of their networks. While Cardano’s founding organization contributes funds to further the network’s development, Near and Avalanche’s ecosystem contributes monies to further the development of their own networks.
Wallets holding ADA have topped 3.9 million, according to statistics from the on-chain analytics platform Messari, signaling the network’s continued growth in usage.
The information also reveals that at least 1 million ADA tokens are held in over 2,800 wallets. As a result, it shows that Cardano has more whales than the majority of its rivals, perhaps as a result of its low cost.
As a founding entity of the Cardano protocol, Emurgo creates products, applications, and services that promote the network’s growth.