Quick take:
- The Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program will support new developers building interchain dApps that use Axelar as infrastructure.
- Investors participating in the program will engage with teams individually.
- The program intends to operate a series of hackathons, meetups and grant programs.
Axelar, a company that delivers secure cross-chain communication for Web3, is launching a $60 million Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program to accelerate the development of decentralized applications and protocols that can replace centralized exchanges.
The company closed a $35 million Series B round in February at a valuation of $1 billion. It also previously raised capital from top-tier investors, including Binance, Coinbase, Dragonfly Capital and Polychain Capital.
Axelar’s team includes experts in distributed systems/cryptography and MIT/Google/Consensys alumni. The co-founders, Sergey Gorbunov and Georgios Vlachos, were founding team members at Algorand. The company’s partners include major proof-of-stake blockchains, such as Avalanche, Cosmos, Ethereum, Polkadot and others.
Several top-tier blockchain investors are committing capital to support the program, including Dragonfly Capital, Lemniscap, Morningstar Ventures, Nima Capital, Node Capital, North Island Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, SCB 10X, and others.
The Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program is targeted at projects ready to raise institutional capital and aims to connect investors and new developers building interchain dApps that use Axelar as infrastructure.
Axelar said that the Web3 products should solve global problems that the centralized internet cannot address, safeguard digital sovereignty, security and privacy, and onboard masses easily. The products should also be able to reach mass adoption without requiring users to switch between blockchains.
“The next wave of crypto adoption won’t come on its own. We’re actively looking to invest in teams building applications and use cases that will build that momentum,” said Dragonfly Capital managing partner Haseeb Qureshi. “These teams have clear vision and they’re looking for infrastructure like Axelar to make their vision possible. This is the nexus through which the next wave in crypto emerges.”
Investors participating in the program will engage with teams individually, making independent investment decisions on the deals of the Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program.
The program also intends to operate a series of hackathons, meetups, and grant programs for idea-stage projects.
Information on all funding programs is available on the Axelar website and interested developers can now apply.
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