Binance Labs rebrands to YZi Labs with CZ at the helm

Binance Labs, the venture capital branch and incubator of Binance Holdings, made a new start while Changpeng Zhao makes it a family office.

On January 23, Binance Labs announced its name change in Yzi Labs and unveiled a new management team led by the founder and former CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ.

According to the announcementCZ will run Yzi Labs alongside Ella Zhang, who co -founded Binance Labs in 2018. During his mandate on the VC platform, Zhang supervised the incubation of several cryptography projects which have become the best market ecosystems, especially Polygon, Injective, Dune Analytics, Certik and Safepal.

As part of his new Family Office initiative, Yzi Labs will extend his field of action beyond cryptocurrency and blockchain. The announcement has highlighted new areas of investment, including artificial intelligence, web3 and biotechnology.

“The brand change in Yzi Labs is more than a name change: this means an extended vision as we expand our horizons to include transformer sectors such as AI and biotechnology,” said CZ.

Zhao resigned from his post as CEO of Binance in 2023 after concluding an agreement with the American authorities. He also served a four-month prison sentence in the United States before returning to industry after his release of a California correctional establishment on September 27, 2024.

Binance’s decision to break the links with its VC branch began to take shape after leaving CZ. In an article on X after his incarceration, Zhao said he would focus on “impact” investments rather than financial returns. He also announced his intention to launch an educational project called Giggle Academy.

With Yzi Labs, CZ plans to refine the care capital unit incubation program, which will include the reintroduction of residence initiatives for the founders of projects. The company will also continue to support its existing portfolio of 250 projects.