Building on the success of NEAR’s first AI x Web3 incubator, the NEAR x Delphi Labs AI Accelerator will provide participating founders and teams with the technical, operational, and financial resources to succeed—including access to $50k in compute credits, advisory support from the NEAR co-founders, funding opportunities beginning at $100k, and token launch support.

Applications are open until October 4 for teams interested in joining the accelerator, which begins on October 14.

NEAR Foundation and Delphi Labs share the common strategic vision of a User-Owned AI ecosystem, built on Web3 rails, that provides genuinely better alternatives to developers and users than the prevailing model of centralized AI controlled by big tech companies. The goal is to maximize the benefits of AI for people and communities—and minimize the potential risks—by putting the power of AI where it belongs: in the hands of users. 

NEAR is a leading blockchain platform designed to accelerate the development of decentralized applications with a focus on usability and scalability—co-founded by Illia Polosukhin, one of the originators of the transformer architecture underpinning the present AI surge. The NEAR ecosystem vision for User-Owned AI includes building a community of aligned teams where innovations are shared openly, ensuring consistency and interoperability across projects. It also includes supporting development of the robust, open infrastructure needed to build and deploy AI applications on a decentralized network, ensuring that the future of AI is not only owned by users but is scalable, secure, and efficient for businesses and founders.

Delphi Labs, a research and development firm specializing in Web3 and DeFi, brings to the accelerator a deep understanding of blockchain technology and a strong track record of supporting successful projects. 

“Crypto x AI is the sector we’re most excited about and, given how early it is, we thought it made a lot of sense for an accelerator cohort,” explains Delphi Labs co-founder José Macedo. “NEAR is the ideal partner given that Illia is one of the original co-authors of the transformer paper and has an unparalleled understanding and network within AI.” The Delphi team’s conviction is that competitive dynamics will result in a world of millions of AI models and that Web3 is the ideal substrate for this many-model world. They are interested in finding exceptional founders who have a strong vision for how Web3 can benefit from AI, or how AI can benefit from Web3, and want to rapidly execute on this vision.

NEAR and Delphi are co-designing the upcoming accelerator cohort experience, slated to begin October 14 with a live kickoff gathering planned. Each participating team will receive mentorship, resources, and opportunities for investment: $100k in investment from NEAR Foundation, along with $50k in compute credits, and potential investment of up to $250k from Delphi Labs for further incubation or acceleration following the completion of the program. The program culminates mid-December at an investor-focused demo day with several top funds and angels in the space. 

NEAR’s first AI x Web3 incubator cohort, which ran from June to August 2024, saw participants achieve significant early milestones while contributing essential pieces to the growing User-Owned AI stack. These milestones include: Hyperbolic hosting the latest open source AI models, including Llama 3.1 405B; Mizu launching their beta platform and attracting 20K users in the first week; and Pond launching their first GNN model for wallet predictions and achieving a 20% prediction rate. The teams have built on the momentum from the incubator to attract serious seed funding interest, with Hyperbolic successfully closing a $7M round.

In addition to the NEAR x Delphi Labs AI Accelerator Program, the NEAR Foundation has also teamed up with Betaworks on an in-person acceleration cohort in New York City focused on consumer AI applications in the Web2 space. Running through November 2024, the Betaworks collaboration welcomes a wider roster of projects into the growing User-Owned AI ecosystem and opens further opportunities for bridging the Web3 x AI space to Web2 consumer AI.

To learn more about the NEAR ecosystem vision for User-Owned AI, Illia’s perspective on the intersection of AI x Web3, and the Delphi Labs team’s investment thesis in the decentralized AI space, check out Delphi’s new podcast episode. 

To follow along with the latest in the User-Owned AI ecosystem, join the NEAR.AI and HZN teams in Singapore (September) or Bangkok (November) and tune in to NEAR AI Office Hours every Tuesday.

The post NEAR Foundation and Delphi Labs Partner on AI x Web3 Accelerator appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

NEAR’s expansion is due in part to some significant upgrades and announcements from its core team. Most recently, NEAR announced its transition to a Blockchain Operating System (BOS), an industry first that further establishes NEAR as the direct entry point into Web3. With the BOS, NEAR is no longer just a Layer 1 — it’s the OS for an open web, free from the centralized platforms of Web2. 

During the announcement, NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin signaled that the transition to the BOS was just the beginning of what’s to come for NEAR. With Consensus in full swing, and NEAR’s presence at the conference, many Web3 enthusiasts and NEAR community members anticipate more exciting announcements and were not disappointed. 

At Consensus, NEAR Foundation announced NEAR Horizon, an accelerator revolutionizing how founders are supported in Web3. Made possible through partnerships with Dragonfly, Pantera, Lyric, Fabric Ventures, Decasonic, Hashed, and others, NEAR Horizon will enable founding teams to scale their projects with a wide range of support. This support will, in turn, enable the rapid growth of great products with real-world value in the NEAR ecosystem.

A revolutionary accelerator for Web3 startups

NEAR Horizon is an exciting opportunity for founder teams looking to build their startups on the BOS. Startups can interact with NEAR Horizon through a double-sided marketplace application that connects founders to each other, and to the people and organizations who are best able to accelerate their growth. 

At launch, the marketplace will include over 15 service providers, 40 mentors, and over 300 backers. Founders in the NEAR ecosystem will have direct self-service access to NEAR Horizon, allowing them to make the connections and generate the resources that will help them succeed. In addition to these immediate resources, founders can apply for credits that cover service costs in critical development areas including marketing, legal, back-office finance, product, and infrastructure. 

For founders looking for additional support and guidance throughout their Horizon journey, the platform will also be equipped with programs facilitated through a NEAR Foundation partner, providing mentorship, business resources, and a direct line to startup capital. These programs are available through a wide range of industry leading groups including Antler, Brinc, FabricX, CV Labs, Blockchain Founders Group, among others. Regardless of the path founders choose to take, NEAR Horizon will provide them with the support they need when they need it most to accelerate the growth of their Web3 projects built on NEAR.

As crypto winter’s thawing hopefully promises the arrival of a crypto spring, NEAR is continuing to build momentum with both founders and investors in the Web3 community. With higher transaction speeds than Ethereum, a strong commitment to its ecosystem, and an industry-first Blockchain Operating System, NEAR has created a direct path toward success for founders. 

Interested in getting involved? Over the next couple of months, the NEAR Foundation will be onboarding projects and founders to NEAR Horizon. If you don’t want to miss the introductions, advice, capital, or hires that come from the marketplace, reach out and get involved today:

• Founders: Join NEAR Horizon here 
• Accelerator Programmes: Register your interest in a partnership here
• Backers: Register your interest in partnering here 

The post NEAR Foundation Launches NEAR Horizon appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

NEAR Foundation has committed over $90M in capital to ecosystem growth, and the NEAR ecosystem grew from 0 to over 1,000 teams. One of the central lessons learned during this time is that founding teams need a host of contributors — beyond investment — in order to be successful. 

Partner with NEAR Foundation for Accelerator program

NEAR Foundation recently announced Updates to Decentralized Funding, Development DAO, and the Accelerator, and released an Open Call for NEAR Accelerator Partners. To further assist founders and startups, the NEAR Foundation is looking to partner with existing products, experts, and services to support teams participating in NEAR Accelerator programs in a variety of different functions:

• Legal Partner RFP — Comprehensive legal and regulatory guidance for cryptocurrency, web3, and general business matters such as intellectual property, taxation, governance, regulatory rulings, outsourcing, cross-border transactions, and consumer/data protection. Expertise in Anti-Money Laundering/Know Your Customer (AML/KYC) compliance and overall startup support from formation to governance.
• Marketing Partner RFP — Full-service marketing support for product engagement and go-to-market strategy execution, including digital marketing, branding, creative concept development, campaign planning, and design.
• Finance Partner RFP — Comprehensive financial services tailored to web3 startups, including accounting, bookkeeping, tax services, and general financial advisory.
• Talent / Recruiting Partner RFP — Specialized recruiting and talent acquisition services to help accelerator teams attract top-tier talent essential for building successful and sustainable businesses.
• Technical Partner RFP — Robust infrastructure and development tools designed to expedite technical and product development, encompassing web3 services, audit services, traditional cloud services as well as UX/UI services.
• Product Partner RFP — Expert guidance in product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, product vision and roadmap development, and tokenomics evaluation for web3 startups.
• PR / Comm Partner RFP — Strategic public relations and communications services aimed at boosting product engagement and supporting go-to-market strategies, covering PR campaigns, social media, communications, and community outreach.

NEAR Foundation will offer service credits to teams participating in the accelerator program to use partner services to help them accomplish their vision. The ultimate goal is for founding teams to create great products and run successful fundraising campaigns, while also increasing revenue and market share for other stakeholders interacting with the product such as our service partners. NEAR Foundation commits to providing access to NEAR ecosystem teams for the selected service partner(s) as “preferred partners.” This will mean that the selected partner(s) are vetted and approved by the NEAR Foundation, and should lead to an increase in the number of projects that are interested in using the partner(s)’ product / services. 

Important dates for NEAR accelerator service partners

We will be assessing proposals based on the requirements outlined in each of the function-specific service partner open calls. Service partners are expected to submit their proposals by Apr 23, 2023. The NEAR Foundation review team will be conducting interviews with selected candidates between May 13-17. The review team will shortlist the service partners between May 20-23 and will communicate further with the selected parties. Final approval will be provided by the NEAR Foundation Counsel. 

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The partnership’s goal is to bring great new products to life in Web3.  After the hack, NEAR Foundation and Startup Wise Guys will prepare all projects to join accelerators, make their first raise, and launch to market. 

Startup Wise Guys’ Pre-Acceleration Program for MetaBUILD

Let’s go over the program. For this occasion, we’ll be running an 8-week program with Startup Wise Guys, covering everything from finding your project’s mission, to setting up team structure, finance, and communication programs for your brand.

Each week covers a specific topic, and will feature both recorded and live events as well as exercises for the projects to take on! 

Each week, all teams will progress to fleshing out their new project’s company setup, brand, and prepare to launch to market. Throughout the program, Startup Wise Guys and NEAR will aid projects with 1-1 mentorships (invited from the ecosystem and from Startup Wise Guys’ network), pitch training and drills, Q&As, and a folder of ready-to-use learning materials.

• Week 1: Onboarding Session

Onboarding of all projects into the program, and setting expectations for all upcoming weeks and events.

• Week 2: Setting Goals & KPIs

Structuring each project’s journey. How to find a mission and vision for your project long term.

• Week 3: Problem Definition & Pitching

Crafting your project’s pitch and problem-to-be-solved to define your selling points.

• Week 4: Product development & effective planning

Planning the product’s development, and identifying key differentiators to give it unique aspects in the market.

• Week 5: Focus and Execution

Crisis-handling in companies, and pace. How to maintain your team’s rhythm.

• Week 6: Sales & Team Management Basics

Sales, marketing, and branding for early startups and projects. How to define your vector for gaining traction in the world.

• Week 7: Company Communications, Finances, Fundraising

Company communications and finance preparations. How to define your key metrics of success, and prepare a structure to present to investors, as well as how to seek and select the right ones.

• Week 8: Legal Basics

How to register your business, understanding your basic legal structure and needs to get started as a company. Also, going over any regulatory requirements like GDPR, and Intellectual Property, as well as minimizing legal needs.

• Week 9: Graduation & Pitches!

Final day! Graduated projects who completed the program will present their project’s revamped pitches and go out to the world.

Come Hack, and Build On!

NEAR Foundation can’t wait to see the new exciting projects that will be born from MetaBUILD, and is excited about this new partnership with Startup Wise Guys in 2023. 

The Foundation will share all progress along the way as we finalize the submission phase of MetaBUILD and move onto judging. So stay tuned and follow all updates on Twitter!

The post NEAR and Startup Wise Guys Partner on MetaBUILD’s Pre-Accelerator Program appeared first on NEAR Protocol.

The NEAR Foundation is the non-profit organization behind the NEAR blockchain, responsible for the development and maintenance of the NEAR Protocol and its associated ecosystem. Since the inception of the grants program, the NEAR Foundation has committed over $90m capital and the ecosystem grew from 0 to over 1,000 teams. 

One of the central lessons learned during this time is that founding teams need a host of contributors in order to be successful, including mentors/advisors, subject matter specific resources (e.g. legal playbooks, go-to-market strategies, tokenomics, etc), and access to investment opportunities. 

NEAR Foundation is looking to partner with existing acceleration programs in two ways:

1. Leverage the partner’s excellence and experience in running cohort-based acceleration programs. 
2. Beta test and help build a digital product being developed by NEAR that connects projects with contributors (including investors).
3. If you’re interested in becoming a NEAR Accelerator Partner, please read the requirements below. Proposals must be submitted via Google Form by February 17th.

*If you’re a startup looking for accelerator programs, NEAR Foundation is looking to engage with the best partners out there. Register your interest in the NEAR Accelerator here.

NEAR Foundation’s Goal 

Attract the most talented early stage teams to NEAR and provide them with the right tools, knowledge, and network to successfully raise external funds at a later stage. 

Success metrics

1. Quality of founder experience, as measured by an NPS score.
2. Ability for founders that have graduated from the accelerator(s) to raise their first or next round within a year of graduation.

Requirements

NEAR Foundation will be assessing proposals based on the two dimensions explained below: the Accelerator Partner Requirements and the Digital Product Beta Participation Requirements. 

Accelerator Partner Requirements

1. Strong sourcing capabilities in the areas of our investment thesis

NEAR Foundation believes in selecting teams building projects with real world, utility-based use cases that tap into the existing pools of Web2 users and companies. They must leverage Web3 in novel ways to solve real world problems better than Web2 tech is able to. The Foundation will not be focused on specific verticals, and instead be relatively opportunistic in terms of use case (at least in the first few cohorts). DeFi and Gaming verticals would be excluded from the accelerator purview.

The Foundation is focused on pre-seed and seed stage teams. We expect that teams selected for a NEAR sponsored cohort will build on NEAR and leverage NEAR Discovery. More information on NEAR Discovery here. 

In your response, please detail the following:

• Your investment thesis and the degree to which it does / does not align with our focus.
• Your approach to sourcing and acquiring top calibur teams. 
• Your approach to vetting teams to ensure quality.

2. Web3 accelerator program scope 

As NEAR Foundation aims to attract the best teams, we want our accelerator partner to provide a top class experience and focus on the main challenges that Web3 startups face nowadays, including but not limited to: go-to-market, token economy and launches, fundraising and pitching, marketing and comms, governance, legal, etc. This will be supplemented by the support of experts within the NEAR ecosystem. 

In your response, please detail the following:

• Program scope and sequence (learning opportunities and delivery method)
• Scope of advisory and mentorship services
• Length of program
• Post program services
• Number of cohorts and anticipated cohort size (number of projects)
• Geographic focus areas 
• Delivery mode (e.g. in person, on-line, hybrid)

3. Track record of success

NEAR Foundation seeks accelerator partners that have a strong track record of success. In your response, please detail the following:

• Date when your program started
• Number of projects and cohorts that have graduated from your program
• Projects names per cohort
• Feedback from teams that have gone through your program
• Percent of teams that have been able to close their first or next round after graduating from your program 
• Average and median amount that graduating teams have been able to raise post-graduation

4. Attractive deal terms

One of the most important factors in attracting high quality founders to the accelerator will be the quality of the investment terms. 

In your response, please detail the following:

• Your approach to investment (including standard allocation if applicable, percent of equity and tokens your team takes, approach to follow-on investment etc.). 

5. Cost & investment

NEAR Foundation is open to various proposals in terms of costs and investments. Where we land will largely depend on the proposed value to NEAR and its ecosystem. 

For NEAR specific cohorts, the Foundation’s goal is for both NEAR and the Accelerator Partner to share operational cost and investment opportunity. 

For chain agnostic cohorts, we would be willing to provide direct technical and non-technical support from the NEAR Foundation Accelerator’s team for startups who choose NEAR as their Layer 1. 

In your response, please detail the following:

• Proposed approach (NEAR cohort vs chain agnostic or both)
• Proposed budget in support of the proposal: this budget should provide details about what the money will be used for (e.g. administrative costs, costs to host events, etc) i.e. P&L
• If applicable, propose the role the NEAR Foundation could play in terms of investment (e.g. LP / co-investor etc.)
• Potential startup date of the program and/or adherence to ongoing program

6. Broader NEAR ecosystem support

NEAR Foundation would like its ecosystem of startups to leverage the partner capabilities even though they are not actively participating in the accelerator (e.g., share ready-made class material, leverage investor network, connections to enterprise, etc.).

In your response, please detail the following:

• Your perspective on providing these resources and supports to NEAR ecosystem projects that do not go through the accelerator program
• Additional costs that might be associated with providing these services (if applicable)
• Your proposal for how your services scale 

Digital Product Beta Participation Requirements

In 2023, Pagoda, NEAR Foundation and other key ecosystem participants are increasing the integration and seamless experience for developers and end users into one common operating system that will leverage fast onboarding experience, user profiles, new chat/ social capabilities, and more. As part of this platform, the Foundation is building a founder-focused application that will be the place for both NEAR-native and non-NEAR-native projects to be discovered, find contributors and investors, and grow towards their goals. We would like to invite accelerator partners in as beta customers and builders for this application.

If your organization is both an investment team and an accelerator:

• Agreement to use the digital product as a project “contributor,” meaning:
  • One or more resources from your team will actively engage with projects on the platform, providing advisory services
  • Your team will leverage the platform to identify projects for investment 
• You will encourage founding teams from your portfolio to use to the platform (they do not need to be building on NEAR) 
• You will actively work to improve your user experience by providing feedback to the project team and/or contributing directly to the development effort

If your organization is solely an accelerator:

• Agreement to use the digital product as a project “contributor,” meaning:
  • One or more resources from your team will actively engage with projects on the platform, providing advisory services
• You will encourage founding teams from your portfolio to use to the platform (they do not need to be building on NEAR) 
• You will actively work to improve your user experience by providing feedback to the project team and/or contributing directly to the development effort

In your response, please detail the following:

•  Your interest and commitment in participation
• Your proposal for how you would engage in the beta (e.g., you will dedicate three part-time resources for the beta; you will contribute part-time engineering resource to contribute to building with us) 

NEAR Foundation Commitments

NEAR Foundation is committed to complement the partner’s current programs with ecosystem support (technical and non-technical). 

Selection criteria and timelines

NEAR Foundation will be assessing proposals based on the previously mentioned requirements. Acceleration partners are expected to submit their proposals by February 17, 2023 via Google Form. The NEAR Foundation review team will be conducting interviews with selected candidates between February 13-24. The review team will shortlist the partners between February 27-28 and will communicate further with the selected parties. Final approval will be provided by the NEAR Foundation Counsel. 

Legal Disclosure: 

Participation in our accelerator partners program is subject to the following terms and conditions: (1) Confidentiality: Participants will be required to keep all information and materials shared by the program confidential, unless otherwise agreed to in writing or as required by law. (2) Intellectual Property: All intellectual property created or developed by a participant during the program will remain the property of the participant, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the participant. (3) Disclaimer of Liability: The program will not be liable for any damages arising out of or in connection with the program or the participation of any participant. (4) Governing Law: These terms and conditions will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Switzerland. By participating in the program, participants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

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