Cronos Launches $100M-backed Cronos Accelerator Program to Support Ongoing Ecosystem Building
Cronos takes the next step in its journey to fund next-generation blockchain efforts. Through the Cronos Accelerator Program, developers can take part in a 10-week program with a $100 million war chest.
Launching the Cronos Accelerator Program
The Cronos ecosystem continues to build strong momentum in the blockchain space. With the help of the newly announced Cronos Accelerator Program, developers and builders will help accelerate the growth of this ecosystem.
The Accelerator announcement is excellent news for blockchain projects that find themselves in the seed-pre-seed stage and are looking for funding, mentorship, growth, or a combination of the above. The Cronos Accelerator Program will primarily focus on advanced DeFi, Web3 Gaming & Metaverse, and Infrastructure & Tooling.
Projects accepted to become part of the Cronos Accelerator Program will be matched with reputable industry mentors. Additionally, there are weekly workshops led by Cronos Labs and external subject matter experts. These workshops will cover various topics associated with protocol building. The Cronos Accelerator has a top-tier line-up of key partners who will be supporting projects in the Accelerator through investments, mentorship, and workshops. Partners include: Crypto.com Capital, Mechanism Capital, Spartan Labs, IOSG Ventures, OKX Blockdream Ventures, AP Capital, Altcoin Buzz, Dorahacks, and many more to be announced at a later stage.
Cronos Managing Director Ken Timsit adds: “Through Cronos Accelerator, we want to enhance the potential of projects that sincerely want to help grow the ecosystem by providing support in almost every area of their operations. In the current climate, it is more important than ever to put our heads down and start building aggressively. We are a top 10 blockchain via Total Value Locked at the moment, and are on track to reach the top 5 by the end of 2022.”
The Cronos Accelerator Program features the following:
- Seed investment opportunities from Cronos Labs between $100,000 and $300,000
- Additional grant funding for security audits, node services and gas fees
- Investment opportunities from established VC partners
- Marketing support and access to the growing Cronos user base through social media channels, AMA webinars, and introductions
- Business advisory from Cronos Labs and industry mentors
- Weekly 1-on-1 mentorship and networking with industry leaders
- Fast tracking with audit partners
- Introductions to Crypto.com ecosystem: DeFi Wallet, Exchange, App, and NFT Marketplace
Cronos VP of Ecosystem Ella Qiang states: “After speaking with many projects in the industry, we realised that while many have high potential, they may not have all the tools they need to stand out and build sustainable tokenomics. We want to provide the necessary support for early stage projects and accelerate their growth on Cronos.”
The Cronos Accelerator Program is funded by the $100 million Cronos Labs Ecosystem Fund. There will be 3–4 cohorts per year, featuring an average of 10 start-ups per cohort.
A 10-week Program for Founders
Ever since Cronos Mainnet Beta went live in November 2021, the Cronos Labs team has worked hand in hand with multiple teams to support the growth of their projects on Cronos. Throughout this process, we witnessed and identified multiple challenges that many early stage teams and founders faced to kick start initial traction on Cronos. We understand that the whole process of building great products is extremely complex across multiple spectrums — idea conceptualization, finding product market fit, product building, marketing and community building, managing security and quality assurance, fundraising, and the list goes on.
The Cronos Accelerator is a 10-week program. Projects accepted into the accelerator program will be matched with reputable mentors in the industry and undergo weekly workshops led by Cronos Labs and external subject matter experts on key topics relating to protocol building. The program will end with a Demo Day for projects to pitch their projects to investment partners of the program.
During the 10 weeks, Cronos Labs and mentors will help founders to polish their business and product strategies, aid with Cronos technical integration, provide market insights, help with community building, refine tokenomics design, recommend smart contract security best practices, and provide fundraising tips.
Opening applications for Cronos Accelerator Cohort #1: June — September 2022
Today, we are opening applications for the first cohort of the Cronos Accelerator Program — a program to accelerate the growth of promising early stage projects on Cronos chain.
Key dates for cohort #1 are as follows:
Cronos Accelerator cohort #1 key dates:
June 7th: Announcement of Cronos Accelerator!
June 7th — July 4th: Cronos Accelerator Applications Open
July 4th: Application Deadline
July 26th: Participants Announced
July 27th — September 30th: 10-weeks Cronos Accelerator Program
September 30th: Demo Day
Apply today!
Applications for cohort #1 are open and the selection process closes on 4th July 2022.
Focus verticals
The Cronos Accelerator Program will prioritize candidates in the following 3 focus verticals:
- Advanced DeFi Applications (Innovative DEXes, innovative money markets, custom-made strategy vaults, decentralized perpetuals, structured finance, etc.)
- Web 3.0 Gaming & Metaverse (P2E / P&E games, NFT collateralization, NFT tooling, Web 3.0 Gaming tooling, etc.)
- Infrastructure & Tooling (Developer tooling, analytics services, DAO infrastructure, Oracles & data curation, B2B services, etc.)
Project selection criteria
Projects are evaluated and selected on an ongoing basis according to the following criteria:
- The project falls within one of the 3 focus verticals.
- The project is currently in the pre-seed or seed stage of fundraising and have yet to raise any institutional funding.
- The team is working on the project full time.
- [Optional but recommended] The project has a MVP product ready.
Apply for the Cronos Accelerator Program Today by clicking on this link!
About Cronos
Cronos is the first EVM-compatible layer 1 blockchain network built on the Cosmos SDK, backed by Crypto.com, Crypto.org and more than 250 app developers and partners. Our mission is to make it easy and safe for the next generation of crypto users to adopt Web3, with a focus on DeFi and GameFi.
Cronos has already skyrocketed to a top 7 position among all chains by total value locked and is used by >800,000 users, growing at 20% per month. Cronos is powered by the Cronos ($CRO) cryptocurrency, which powers an ecosystem of more than 50 million users worldwide.
Cronos Labs is the ecosystem investment fund, web3 start-up accelerator and incubator of Cronos chain.
Where to find Cronos: Website | Twitter | Discord | Telegram | Medium
