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Colosseum is forging a clear pathway for anyone with an idea and an internet connection to launch products onchain. Today, we're excited to share that we've raised $60 million from an incredible group of investors to continue supporting founders building on Solana at the earliest stages. While the entry point is simple (just a few clicks), the global competition in Colosseum hackathons results in a hardened, diverse, and meritocratic set of winners. These talented teams not only take the first step in developing a project they believe will have a significant impact, but are also willing to test their ideas against other elite builders from across the world. The drive and technical ability to will their ideas into existence are rare and valuable traits that we believe will define the next era of products generating enduring demand for block space. We built Colosseum’s online platform and accelerator program to efficiently onramp developers into the crypto startup and venture ecosystems. This supporting infrastructure, along with a vast group of mentors and hackathon alumni, serves to streamline the initial stages of building a new network, market, application, or any other zero to one innovation. The last 15 years of crypto has taught us that the best ideas often arise from the most uncommon corners of the internet. Colosseum’s mission is to ensure more of those ideas are brought into production and accelerate the growth of the onchain economy. https://lnkd.in/dG44D-j6

𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐇𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐦! The Solana (SOL) Foundation is taking a strategic step to enhance its blockchain ecosystem by transferring the management of its hackathons and accelerator programs to the Colosseum. This move is geared towards fostering innovation and supporting developers in creating new ventures within the Solana ecosystem. Since its inception, Solana's hackathons have played a pivotal role in the ecosystem's growth, drawing over 60,000 participants across the globe and resulting in the launch of around 4,000 products. These events have not only showcased Solana's potential but also helped in securing substantial venture capital funding for the winners, amounting to over $600 million. Colosseum, co-founded by former Solana Foundation Head of Growth Matty Taylor, former Slow Ventures Principal Clay Robbins, and ex-Stripe software engineer Nate Levine, is set to continue this legacy. The organization plans to host two to three annual online hackathons, providing a platform for developers to bring their ideas to fruition and embark on their crypto startup journeys. Financially, the accelerator program is quite attractive, with Colosseum investing $250,000 in pre-seed funding to selected projects. Additionally, the non-dilutive prize pool for hackathon winners is estimated to be around $600,000. These incentives are expected to significantly contribute to the development and success of new projects on the Solana blockchain. This initiative by the Solana Foundation and Colosseum is not just about organizing hackathons and funding projects; it's a concerted effort to build a robust developer community. Despite market downturns, Solana has shown a remarkable increase in developer growth (83% year-over-year in 2023) and improved developer retention rates. The foundation's focus on its grassroots developer community, along with Colosseum's commitment to accelerating and investing in new projects, is poised to bring a fresh wave of innovation and growth to the Solana ecosystem. #IT #InformationTechnology #Tech #TechCommunity #ITPros #TechInnovation #Cybersecurity #CloudComputing #DataScience #Programming #DevOps #SoftwareDevelopment #Code #TechTrends #ITIndustry #DigitalTransformation #IoT #AI #MachineLearning #Solana #Blockchain #Crypto #Hackathon #DeveloperCommunity #Innovation #Startups #VentureCapital #AcceleratorProgram #Colosseum #TechInnovation #BlockchainDevelopment #CryptoProjects #Decentralized #Fintech #Investment #Technology #SolanaEcosystem #CryptoInnovation #DeveloperSupport

Solana's New Incubator Program & Firedancer Validator - A New Era in Blockchain Technology The blockchain landscape is evolving: Solana's new Firedancer validator client and Solana Labs' incubator program. Solana Foundation Solana Labs 🌱 Solana Labs Incubator Program Solana Labs has launched an incubator program to help scale startups interested in building on its network. The program offers engineering and go-to-market support, aiming to reduce the friction in blockchain development. 📌 Incubator Highlights Customized Support: Tailored to the specific needs of each team. Operational Guidance: Helps navigate the challenges in the nascent industry. Technical Assistance: Focuses on engineering, fundraising, and go-to-market strategies. 🔥 Solana's Firedancer Validator Client Solana is introducing a new validator client, Firedancer, designed by Jump Crypto. This next-gen client aims to enhance Solana's performance, scalability, and reliability. 📈 Why Firedancer is a Game-Changer Performance: In a live demo, Firedancer processed 1.2 million transactions per second. Efficiency: It's designed to lower operating costs for node operators. Sharding Support: Firedancer includes support for sharding, allowing Solana to scale horizontally. Programming: Developed in C and C++, known for high performance and reliability. Learn More About Firedancer 👉 https://lnkd.in/eVG6h43t Learn More About the Incubator 👉 https://lnkd.in/er_2E9D6 #Solana #Firedancer #Blockchain #Crypto #Startups #IncubatorProgram

SOLANA LAB LAUNCHES WEB3 INCUBATOR OFFERING DEV AND FUNDRAISING SUPPORT Cointelegraph Solana Labs unveiled an all-new incubator program for project development on the Solana blockchain on Oct. 26.  Title simply “Solana Incubator,” the program will offer fundraising, development, networking, and marketing support for web and blockchain projects seeking to build on Solana’s platform. The Solana Incubator will accept applications through Nov. 30. Those accepted will purportedly receive support from the Solana Labs team and its partners throughout the development, marketing, and launch phases of their projects. According to Emon Motamedi, Product Manager at Solana Labs: “Our priority with the Incubator program is to remove the biggest obstacles currently facing founders, including barriers around Web3 integrations and fundraising, so that these teams can spend their time on what they do best: solving the burning problems of their users. By providing founders with the resources they need to succeed, we hope to not only bring more sustainable businesses to the Solana ecosystem, but to also help grow the Web3 industry as a whole." Motamedi’s commentary comes via an Oct. 26 press release. “Additionally,” reads the article, “the program is designed to provide teams with exposure to top VCs in the Solana Labs network to help these start-ups enhance their liquidity.” In related news, Marinade Finance, the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on the Solana blockchain, is now blocking new signups from users in the United Kingdom. https://lnkd.in/eKDch_-g #investment #ai #ar #metaverse #web3 #fashion

#Web3 and #crypto firms have successfully concluded another week, securing a total of $64.7 million in investments. Notably, one of these investments reached a valuation of $100 million. Let's now explore which trends garnered the most investment during this week. The first startup last week was Myshell, a #decentralized and integrated platform for discovering and creating #AI native apps, which secured $5.6 million in seed funding led by INCE Capital. Other notable venture capitals attended the funding round including, Folius Ventures, HashKey Capital, and SevenX Ventures. Squads Protocol, a multisig for #Solana ecosystem, has raised $5.7 million led by Placeholder with participation from L1 Digital AG, Solana Foundation, Multicoin Capital, Delphi Digital, LayerOne VC. Another startup that has secured investment is Fileverse - Private Collaboration Tool, an #onchain space for collaboration, which raised $1.5M in a pre-seed funding round. Darewise Entertainment, an on-chain #gaming project that is subsidized by Animoca Brands, has raised $3.5M in token pre-sale. Darewise aims to establish a comprehensive #metaverse environment centered on #Bitcoin Ordinals. Elixir Protocol, a #decentralized, #algorithmic market-making protocol, secured $7.5 million Series A funding at an astonishing $100 million valuation in a Series A funding round led by Hack VC. Elixir enables users to provide #liquidity directly to #trading pairs on order book exchanges and earn maker rewards, offering a risk-return profile similar to that of #AMMs. Ryder, a hardware #wallet, has raised $1.2M in a seed funding round led by OakGrove VC. Coin Metrics, a crypto #data firm, raised about $6.7 million in funding. Coin Metrics offers information about #cryptocurrency markets, networks, and pricing. The startup that has raised the highest investment is SynFutures, a decentralized #derivatives protocol, which has completed a $22 million Series B funding round. Pantera Capital, led the round, with participation from HashKey Capital and Susquehanna International Group. Beluga, a crypto platform for onboarding new users, has raised 4 million dollars in a seed funding round led by @FinVentureCap. Lastly, Uplandme, Inc., an EOS-based metaverse #game, has successfully raised 7 million dollars in the Series A+ round led by EOS Network Foundation. Upland reports a user base of over 3 million registered players, with approximately 30,000 active users daily. The company has also formed partnerships with prominent sports organizations like FIFA and the National Football League (NFL) Players Association. #bitcoin #web3 #crypto #investing

Meet Alliance DAO’s latest accelerator #cohort of #startups building in #cryptowinter The 03 month-long accelerator program brings in #web3 founders for at least 10 hrs per week twice a year. Alliance also invests $250,000 in startups that take part in the program. Company: Kravata What it does: Fiat to crypto on and off-ramp for LatAm Stage: Seed The pitch: Kravata aims to connect traditional financial infrastructure and fiat currencies with #cryptocurrencies for businesses wanting to get into #web3 in #LatinAmerica. Its investors include Circle Ventures, Framework Ventures, DeFi Alliance DAO and others. Company: Thunder What it does: Onchain trading terminal Stage: Seed The pitch: Product of Eversify Fund Tokens, an onchain “intent-based” trading terminal that aims to give users “an unfair advantage in every way possible,”. Exchanges like OpenSea, Uniswap, Base, Polygon Labs, Blur and Solana Labs Company: Sleepagotchi What it does: #NFT-powered Sleep Game Stage: Seed The pitch: #Sleepagotchi aims to help people sleep through #gamifying sleep with NFTs. Available on #IOS, It rewards users daily for hitting sleep goals and also provides the ability to collect items. It has 14k monthly users and a 41% 1 year retention rate, raised $3.5 million from investors. Company: Blockcast What it does: #Decentralized broadcast delivery network Stage: Seed The pitch: #decentralized #content delivery network that helps broadcasters have more traffic and reach wider audiences, by bridging the gap between TV and online streaming through #tokenizing un-utilized TV spectrum.The cost of streaming a 4K movie to 10k viewers is typically about $1,000 through servers like Cloudflare, but with Blockcast it can reduce the cost by 96%. Company: Tailwind What it does: Cosmos-based smart wallet Stage: Seed The pitch: #crypto wallet focused on the #Cosmos ecosystem. It aims to help users focus on decentralized apps by abstracting away from chains and a single gas token for transactions. Company: Tazz What it does: Debt market for protocols Stage: Seed The pitch: #Tazz is a decentralized lending protocol that aims to make buying and selling debt tied to #digitalassets more efficient. It allows users to trade debt through #decentralizedexchange Uniswap V3. It accepts any type of crypto collateral Company: Upshield What it does: #Web3 security platform Stage: Seed The pitch: #fullstack security platform for web3 protocols, assets and communities. Aims to build apps that are non-security experts. It can work with web3 apps built on eight blockchains and networks like Coinbase’s Base, Ethereum, Avalanche, Binance and Polygon Labs. Company: INCO What it does: Encrypted Ethereum virtual machine Stage: Seed The pitch: Inco Network is an encrypted Ethereum virtual machine (#EVM) layer-1 protocol that aims to help decentralized apps (#dApps) operate on-chain. Fully homomorphic encryption (#FHE), that allows computations on encrypted data, without having to #decrypt it.

Did you know that #web3 and #crypto companies raised more than $200M #investment last week? Notably, one of the startup had a valuation of $500M. Let’s examine the details! The first company that raised fund last week was SKYPlay. South Korea-based #game platform raised $10M from LDA Capital. Skyplay provides a wide range of services offered by each project using one single token, $SKP, as the underlying currency. Presently, Skyplay is servicing their games in over 170 countries. Ethena Labs, a startup developing the first ever ‘internet bond’ and a new #Ethereum based #stablecoin, raised $6M in seed funding round led by #blockchain focused venture capital Dragonfly. Well-known #crypto exchanges also participated in the funding round such as; BitMEX, OKX Ventures, Bybit, Deribit, Gemini and Huobi Ventures. And the topmost investment of the last week, Futureverse. Futureverse, an #AI and #metaverse platform that enables #scalable and interoperable apps, has raised $54 million dollars in Series A funding round led by 10TFund. The founding team of #ripple protocol, Ripple Labs, also participated in the investment round. Echooo Wallet, smart contract #wallet powered by ERC-4337 (account abstraction), that combines #AI and #MPC technology, raised $15M fund led by #web3 venture capital, AT Capital. Another remarkable #startups that has raised investment is Manta Network. Manta Network, multi-modular #blockchain for #zeroknowledge applications, raised $25M with a valuation of $500M! Polychain Capital, QimingVC, alliancedao, SevenXVentures and CoinFund were among the investors. RiscZero, trusted and #trustless computer based on #zeroknowledge virtual machine, managed to raise $40M in Series A funding round. The round was led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from other notable names including Bain Capital Ventures, IOSG Ventures, RockawayX Maven11Capital, Delphi Digital. Cosmic, a #web3 startup that provides a wide range of infrastructure products, has raised $30M. The seed funding round led by well-known venture capitals in #crypto, Polygon Ventures and Solana Foundation.  Interface, an interface into the #web3, raised $1.4M in seed funding round led by Polymorphic Capital and Real Mask Network. Interface aims to facilitate and enhance the experience of exploring #Ethereum. Radiant, a cross-chain lending and borrowing protocol which is the first #omnichain money market atop #LayerZero, has raised $10M in a strategic fund led by #venturecapital arm of #Binance, Binance Labs. Side Protocol, a cross-blockchain #AMM based swap protocol, raised $1.5M in a seed funding round. Investors included, HashKey Capital, KR1 plc, Continue Fund. Lastly, Over Protocol. Over Protocol, decentralized layer 1 blockchain focusing on providing lightweight full nodes, was another project that has managed to raise fund last week. The start-up raised $8M in a private funding round. #bitcoin #web3 #crypto #investing

Polygon investit 78 millions de dollars pour soutenir les startups Web3 ㅤㅤㅤ 🚀Polygon Labs Infuses $78M to Boost Web3 Ecosystem🚀 ㅤㅤㅤ 🔵 Polygon Labs, Ethereum’s biggest layer-2 network provider, has decided to level up their game. A hefty investment of $78M has transformed the dynamics of their project, Polygon Village, gearing up for some exciting ventures. ㅤㅤㅤ 🟣 Originally an aid center for Web3 startup pioneers, Polygon Village is now not only a funding platform but also an ecosystem that supports the development of Web3 startups and projects. ㅤㅤㅤ 🟢 The initiative plans to back all Web3 project creators, whether at the starting or finishing line of their cycle, with its initial investment of 110 million MATIC. ㅤㅤㅤ 🟡 Polygon Village is expanding its horizon by providing not just financial aid, but also mentoring, strategic support, workspace, etc. Its ultimate goal is to guide the Web3 founders from any development stage to their project’s completion stage. ㅤㅤㅤ #Web3 #PolygonLabs #Blockchain #Ethereum #PolygonVillage #DigitalRevolution ㅤㅤㅤ´ —————– ➡️ For more information: https://lnkd.in/erskVTYq. ➡️This content has been and posted by a fine-tuned ChatGPT model. ➡️Follow us for more updates on Web3 and tokenization.