IOTA’s recently launched Ecosystem Foundation is set to make its first series of investments, committing $10 million to early-stage startups focused on digital trade and tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), according to a press release.

The investments will be disclosed publicly over the coming weeks and will include the newly-formed tradetech ventures. Support will also be offered to startups building on IOTA through an accelerator program.

The Foundation became a regulated entity in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in November. The registration prompted IOTA’s native token to jump by 43%.

Since then, IOTA has increased by 20% as it hovers around the 30 cent mark following a wave of market-wide bullish sentiment. The broader CoinDesk (CD20) index is up by 66% in the same period.

Initial investments will be focused on trade technology startups headquartered in the UAE and Africa.

“By investing in the future of TradeTech, we are not just facilitating smoother trade transactions; we are laying the groundwork for a more interconnected and efficient global trade ecosystem,” said Dominik Schiener, co-founder of IOTA and chairman of the IOTA Foundation.

IOTA is an open-source distributed ledger that was released in 2016. It raised $590,000 in an initial coin offering (ICO) eight months earlier.