YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, introduced a $1 billion fund for projects building on the BNB Chain.

The investment company, which was rebranded from the venture arm of crypto exchange Binance last year, is targeting BNB-based projects in areas such as trading, real-world assets (RWAs), artificial intelligence (AI), decentralized finance (DeFi) and wallets, according to on Wednesday.

YZI Labs said it wants the BNB ecosystem to form a backbone of "democratized access and ownership, AI to enhance human potential and biotech to improve quality of life."

"Through this $1B BNB Builder Fund, YZi Labs is committed to supporting BNB builders across sectors such as DeFi, AI, RWA, DeSci, and more — those building the next generation of open systems that connect technology back to human progress," said Ella Zhang, Head of YZi Labs.

Following Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao's , he took , rebranded YZi Labs, to target startups in Web3, AI and biotech.

YZI Labs is in fact often referred to as Zhao's family office - the name for an investment vehicle that manages the wealth of a single family. The company, however, says its structure is different from a traditional family office, as it does not involve itself in estate planning, tax structuring and so on.