Runway Fund — an emergency relief fund assembled by the co-founders of OnChain Capital to help startups impacted by the COVID-xix pandemic — has been "overwhelmed" past the number of applications.

Cointelegraph spoke to Ran Neuner, host of CNBC Africa's Crypto Trader and co-founder of both OnChain Capital and Runway Fund, to find out more nearly the project's plans to assist struggling offset-ups.

The fund is open to applications from startups in all jurisdictions and has received 400 submissions from startups worldwide in just ii weeks.

Neuner states that the fund has received "more requests than we ever could have imagined," calculation that Runway's staff is "working 20 hours a day beyond different fourth dimension zones to review every application."

"Sadly, the number of affected startups is huge, much more than we expected," Ran states, adding, "We are in the final stages of [due diligence] with three companies already and hope to make the first investments by early adjacent week."

Runway Fund hopes to raise $100 million

The fund was launched with $ten one thousand thousand in funds provided by Neuner, OnChain's other co-founder Yossi Hasson, and contributions from "high net worth individuals."

The fund intends to seek out a further $90 one thousand thousand from OnChain Capital'due south investor network in the hereafter:

"We faced a dilemma every bit to whether nosotros should raise coin first or launch the fund. We opted to get going as chop-chop as possible and then continue raising based on the response. Needless to say, nosotros volition now go out and raise more than capital letter [...] Nosotros have had a lot of interest from potential investors."

Ran Neuner "particularly impressed" past African startups

While Neuner notes that the quality of all of the startups that take practical to the fund is "mind-blowing," he states that African applicants have stood out in a higher place the residual.

"I have been particularly impressed by the African Entrepreneurs, they take very novel businesses and the quotient of the teams has been impressive," he states, adding, "I did not imagine that Africa would exist so far ahead, fifty-fifty though I am from Africa."