Binance Labs Launches Season 3 of Incubation Program
Main takeaway
Binance Labs is starting its journey of eight weeks with nine incubation projects that participated in Season 3 of the Incubation Program
There are nine incubation projects in Season 3, covering different sectors of the industry, such as gaming, DeFi, NFT, exchange, etc
Anyone interested in Season 4 can apply here
Season 3 of the Incubation Program organized by Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and incubator of Binance, is starting.
Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and incubator of Binance, is excited to announce Season 3 of the Incubation Program to support promising projects in the blockchain space.
For the past two seasons of the Incubation Program, Binance Labs incubated market-leading and successful crypto businesses such as Polygon, Perpetual Protocol, Injective Protocol, SafePal, Cere Network, and Dune Analytics. Through the experience of incubating a wide range of projects at a very early stage, Binance Labs has acquired the best methodology for developing and elevating projects.
Bill Chin, the Head of Binance Labs Fund, said: “Binance Labs Incubation Program was first created to nurture potential and promising entrepreneurs and projects that can accelerate the adoption and innovation in the industry. Through the Incubation Program, we hope to help the future industry key players go through easier ways of development and I am sure our team and the mentors can also be inspired by the fresh and new insights of the talented founders and teams all around the world.”
Those who are interested in Binance Labs Season 4 Incubation Program can apply for the program here. Incubation Program Season 4 will kick off in March of 2022. All portfolio company founders, mentors or Binance alumni can directly recommend projects to fast-track into the final interview for the incubation selection.
Meet the Co-Organizer of the Incubation Program
DoraHacks, a global hackathon organizer and one of the world's most active developer communities, is co-organizing Season 3 of the Incubation Program with Binance Labs. DoraHacks' open-source developer platform and curation market, HackerLink, provides unique on-chain tools to incentivize open-source developments around the world.
Partner of DoraHacks, Steve Ngok, said “DoraHacks is honored and happy to support our long-term partner Binance Labs in organizing Season 3 of the Incubation Program. We’d love to open source DoraHacks resources and knowledge on engaging developers, marketing, fundraise, and other fronts that new start-ups might benefit from knowing early, and accompany the enrolled teams in their future journey in the Web3 world.”
Key Elements of the Incubation Program
1. 8-Week of Timeline
Binance Labs Incubation Program lasts for eight weeks. During the program, incubation projects will have respective mentoring sessions with the founders of portfolio companies of Binance Labs, industry influencers and potential investors.
2. All-in-one Services
Since the incubation projects are within the Binance ecosystem, Binance will support them with what they need. They will have an open access to value-add services of advisors, including PR and marketing, legal, finance, etc.
3. Mentorship
There will be a regular weekly fireside chat session for incubation projects to join and discuss with founders of Binance and other crypto mentors. Co-founders of Binance, CZ and He Yi, advisors from investors like Delphie Digital, Multicoin Capital, Pantera Capital, and the founders of Binance Labs portfolio companies will join as the mentors for the fireside chat.
With mentors of different backgrounds and expertise, we hope that the incubation projects can bring the best out of the program.
4. Binance Labs Demo Day
Demo Day is the end of the program for the incubated projects to formally pitch their progress and traction to a wide audience of investors and mentors. Through the Demo Day, they can not only find their potential investors but also discover opportunities to work with other partners.
Meet the Incubation Projects
There are nine incubation projects that are selected from the Fall 2021 Edition of the Binance Incubation Program submissions. They are all based in different parts of the world, and they are building different products to bring the mass adoption of crypto to the world.
1. Block Ape Scissors
Block Ape Scissors is a play-to-earn ecosystem built on BNB Chain (former BSC), incorporating gaming, NFTs, and DeFi together into exciting, diverse and rewarding opportunities.
Co-Founder, Matthew Hutchins, said “We are delighted to be selected for the Binance Labs Incubation Program and the team can't wait to start working with the best expertise, knowledge and resources in crypto, for the greatest opportunity to realize the long-term success of our vision.”
Twitter: @ApeBlock
2. Tranching Protocol
Tranching Protocol is an yield optimization and hedging protocol implementing tranching for yield farming.
Tranching Protocol Founder, Sun Kuan, said “Tranching Protocol is the first solution to create market risk-premium efficiency in the growing $200B LP yield market. This is a grand endeavor and we are pleased to join the prominent Binance Labs Incubation Program and have Binance team as a foundational partner.”
Twitter: @TranchingPro
3. GAT Network
GAT Network is a web of connected NFT trading and gaming projects that already has launched several projects on BNB Chain.
“We are very excited to join the Binance Labs Incubation program; we are grateful for this unique opportunity to grow our NFT gaming and trading network. It is delightful to work together with Binance Labs, our mentors and other projects on the future landscape of blockchain innovations,” said Roman, co-Founder of GAT Network.
Twitter: @GAT_network
4. Wombat.Exchange
Wombat.Exchange is a hyper efficient multi-chain stableswap.
Alex Lee, Founder of Wombat.Exchange, said “The team is truly honoured to have earned a placement in the Binance Labs Incubation program and to be part of the Binance ecosystem; we are confident that Binance’s wealth of experience and support will be instrumental to fulfilling our vision and commitment to DeFi.”
Twitter: @WombatExchange
5. Bird
Bird is building a new type of decentralized oracle that empowers blockchain developers with access to plug and play machine learning analytics products for the next generation web platforms.
Daniel Stephens, CEO of Bird, said “This program, and the larger Binance ecosystem, has played a vital role in the growth of this industry that we all love and Bird is deeply honored to have been selected alongside such high-caliber projects. Our team's vision for a better machine learning ecosystem on Web3.0 is now one step closer thanks to this collaboration.”
Twitter: @_birdmoney
6. Mint Club
Mint Club is a smart token building platform without the need for coding or providing liquidity on the BNB Chain.
Mint.Club co-Founder, YoungHwi Cho, said “Mint Club is a no-code crypto builder with instant liquidity. We strongly believe that collaboration with Binance Labs, mentors, and other teams in this program will help us all grow faster together.”
Twitter: @MintClubPro
7. Raydius
Raydius is a middleware solution designed to create a more connected blockchain ecosystem.
“We are gratified and honoured to be part of the Binance Labs Incubation Program, we truly appreciate this precious opportunity. We believe that BNB Chain is a great step forward in blockchain emphasizing usability as well as user-centric experience. Raydius integrates with bridge to BNB Chain in the first phase of development and strives to offer a one-stop experience for asset transfer. We surely will create a more connected blockchain ecosystem with the tremendous support from Binance,” Gloria Chen, Founder of Raydius, said.
Twitter: @raydius_
8. Copycat Finance
Copycat Finance is a decentralized copy trading and copy farming platform on BNB Chain, where innovative social trading meets the high-yield social farming revolution.
Co-Founder of Copycat Finance, Nicholas Pan, said “The team is immensely glad to be selected for the exclusive Binance Labs Incubator Program, with the greatest opportunity and holistic support from the best experts in the crypto world. We will show explosive growth along with a vision that fulfills faster than everyone can expect.”
Twitter: @copycatfinance
9. SkyArk Studio
SkyArk Studio is a Singapore-based blockchain gaming studio.
Kelvin Chua, co-Founder of SkyArk Studio said “The studio is extremely excited and appreciative of the opportunity that Binance Labs has presented us, can’t wait to buidl alongside with other like-minded people and learn from industry experts. SkyArk aims to revolutionize NFT gaming with its proprietary assets and engine.”
Twitter: @SkyarkS
Meet the Mentors of the Incubation Program
Binance Labs invited mentors from the Binance team, potential investors from different venture capitals, and the leaders of previous incubation projects that went through similar processes as the 9 incubation projects will go through.
Ken Li, Investment Director at Binance Labs said “All of these incubation projects have strengths in what Labs has been looking into. We are excited to support them at an early stage and contribute to the future of the industry through mentorship.”
Chase Guo, Investment Director at Binance Labs added, “Our program has successfully incubated major projects for the industry in the past through other seasons of Incubation Program, and we hope to see the same track records from this season’s projects.”
Meet the Previous Season Incubation Projects
Binance Labs has incubated projects that eventually secured funds from other market players and these projects are well-positioned in the industry.
1. Polygon
Polygon, formerly known as Matic Network and one of the incubation projects from Season 2, is one of such projects leading the industry. As an Ethereum scaling aggregator to scale up Ethereum through various scaling approaches, the project has steadily developed. Last year, Polygon became one of the most adopted solution in the industry with 3000+ Dapps and achieving DAUs higher than that of Ethereum main chain itself. Polygon’s goal for next year is becoming the biggest player in the ZK technology scaling. Polygon has already acquired and initiated various ZK initiatives.
Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, attending as one of the mentors for the Season 3 Incubation Program, said “Binance Labs Incubation Program was an important momentum if we see the history of this project. Through the programs Binance Labs has prepared, we could develop our business more, and eventually, we were able to launch our tokens through the Launchpad. On top of the financial investment Binance Labs made, the project was able to secure additional funding through the Launchpad and the attention of crypto users. We hope that through Season 3 of Incubation Program, future market leaders can be discovered and incubated.”
2. Cere Network
Cere Network is an enterprise-facing decentralized data and finance cloud platform. Cere Network raised $31 million in a funding round led by the investment platform Republic and Polygon.
3. Perpetual Protocol
Perpetual Protocol is the developer of a virtualized liquidity pool that is determined algorithmically and enables liquidity for markets with no makers. Its PERP token currently has a market capitalization of $1.1 billion ($1,138,913,520), ranked at 96.
4. Nym Technologies
Nym Technologies is a privacy-centric startup and protocol that raised $6 million as a Series A round and will launch its mainnet soon.
5. Safepal
Safepal is the creator of SafePal S1, a secure and affordable hardware wallet. SafePal launched its SFP token through Binance Launchpad with a current market capitalization of $190 million.
6. Dune Analytics
Dune Analytics is a free and popular Ethereum analytics platform that allows users and projects to query and visualize data. Dune Analytics raised $2 million in a seed funding round that was led by Dragonfly Capital, with Multicoin Capital, Hashed, Semantic Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Coingecko, Alameda Research and Digital Currency Group participating. The project also recently secured $8 million in a Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures, with Redpoint Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, and Multicoin Capital participating.
Follow Binance Labs on Twitter to stay up-to-date with the Binance Labs Incubation Program and other initiatives. Also, application for Season 4 of the Incubation Program is now available here.
Disclaimer: The incubation projects are in collaboration with Binance Labs only. Binance exchange currently bears no responsibility and is not connected to any of their future release of tokens (if any).