Projects
![]()
No projects found
Investors
New
DAO Treasuries
DATs
Lend / Borrow APRs
Chains
Categories
Spaces
Algorand Accelerator 2025
Recorded: April 15, 2025 Duration: 0:38:39Space Recording
Short Summary
The Algorand Accelerator 2025 has officially launched, inviting applications to support innovative blockchain projects. With tailored mentorship, funding opportunities, and a focus on growth, the program aims to foster the next wave of DeFi protocols and Web3 applications within the Algorand ecosystem.
Full Transcription
Thank you. Music I'm going to go to the next episode. Thank you. I'm going to go to the next episode. Thank you. so
hey everybody thank you so much for joining we're about to kick off in a minute or so.
I'm going to hand over to my amazing co-host today, Joanna.
Thank you. Hi, everyone. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. I'm very excited to be with you today.
Good afternoon, good evening. I'm very excited to be with you today. We are waiting for Ram,
our co-host, to join. And we also have Valar with us. Hey, Valar, how are you today?
Hello, and good afternoon and all of the other goods on this planet right now.
Great, it's great to hear you, and thanks for joining. So we have fantastic things to share with you today. I'm very happy to
share that the Algorand Accelerator 2025 is open. So we are officially starting to accept applications
and today we just want to walk you through you through what the accelerator is, what are our expectations in terms of startups, also what you can expect from us, what we will be delivering through this program.
And we will have room for Q&A.
So if you have any question, we have also a frequently asked question section on the website.
I'm quite sure we will not cover everything and we hope
everything is there but if there's anything that is missing and that you would like to know more
feel free to chat with us and we will be answering all the questions in the end and we will also be
hearing about Valar's experience through the incubator. So I think it will be a very exciting 30 to 45 minutes.
We don't want to take more of your time on that.
And I see that Ram already joined.
So Ram, maybe you need to ask to speak.
And while Ram is joining us, I'll briefly introduce myself.
So I am Joanna. Maybe some of you already know me from the NFT world. I am leading the ecosystem funding and startup programs at the Algorand Foundation.
together with the ecosystem and some of the things you know uh i've been finding through the work with
nfts with gaming and with so many other projects on this ecosystem um and we hope to really bring
a kind of a top class support for the existing and the new projects coming into algorand
through these startup programs so ram i see you're here already how are you today
the programs. So Ram, I see you're here already. How are you today?
Oh, hey, Jonah. So sorry about it, guys, but I'm here now. And hey, everyone. I'm Ram. Nice to meet
you all. I work as an ecosystem growth associate at Algorand. And I was also part of the team
running the Algorand incubator last year. So I'm Jonah and I are part of the Startup Programs team, basically helping
founders on AllGrant building the startups through their startup journey from zero to one.
Awesome. Thanks, Ram. So, let me just briefly introduce you the AllGrant Accelerator and why
we decided to have an accelerator and not an incubator.
In the last year, we had the first incubator cohort.
And this year, we decided to go more towards an accelerator model,
also because we have our builder program.
So we will have the Web3 masterclasses.
We have our workshops.
We have the hackathons.
And part of that, we found that,
you know, it's important to bring some of the incubator content and this kind of like team
formation, ideation, validation moment into more of the early stage. And how can we really work
with the projects that are already working with a proof of concept and to bring more kind of this qualified content into their growth
journey. So the goal for us with Incubator is really to help this ecosystem grow in a sustainable
way. And it means, you know, having projects and products that are out there that have a product
market fit. So real adoption and partnerships and everything you need to grow.
Why an in-house accelerator?
Some of you might know that in the past we used to partner with external accelerators to run this type of programs.
This year we decided to shift a bit the strategy.
The first thing because we want to really be together with the startups since the very early moment of this program.
So we want to walk with you and to be with you throughout your growth journey.
And the second thing is because we don't believe in a one size fits all model.
We don't believe that all startups need to go through the same content at the same stage. Also because people have different pace of learning, also because
startups, some of them and some projects and products will take longer to validate their idea
than others. So we really want this program to be at your own pace and make sure that everyone gets
the best out of this experience. And for that, we decided to do something in-house. So we really hope to give you the best-in-class experience
with this new program.
And I will pass my word to Ram,
who will walk us a bit on our expectations
for this program and startups.
Yeah, thanks, Joanna.
So, I mean, we did learn quite a bit
from our experience running the incubator.
There's no one size model that fits for every startup
that's in the incubator
because they are all in different stages
and they all have different requirements.
And making a startup sit through different sessions,
even when they don't need it,
is not the best use of their time.
So with this, with the upcoming accelerator,
we're doing a cohort, but it's a non-cohote-based 0 to 1 program where founders, we sit with the founders, we evaluate them, we decide together on what they need the most, and then we give them what they need.
Through mentorship, through workshops, assigning mentors, and even giving workshops to what they specifically need instead of everything.
So that's a brief of what Accelerator will look like.
But then what are the type of projects that we are looking for for the Accelerator?
The project definitely has to be either based on Algorand or have Algorand in the product roadmap.
Ideally, the startup should have a complementary team with a good mix of tech and non-tech co-founders.
We've seen there's a lot of external capital requirements for a team that's not
complementary, but a well-rounded team can actually do most of the job that requires
but a well-rounded team can actually do most of the job
that requires that required by a startup internally,
reducing the cost, but also increasing the amount of growth
that startups can have in the early stages.
The startup should definitely have at least a POC
or some form of user validation.
And when we say POC, it's something that's tangible.
While that's ideally,
a really good user validation can also make a case
to promote your startup within for the accelerator.
For example, if you're an enterprise startup,
you don't really need to have a POC
as long as you have a strong user validation
and partnerships or letter of intent from those who you're building this for.
And startups should definitely have a clear problem statement and a good understanding of
all the user personas. So you're probably solving this problem for someone. And this is your target
user persona. This ideal customer persona should have this real problem and you should be able to define
it properly in terms of metrics, in terms of the personality and what is the need for
the startup.
And again, there should be clear differentiation from the already existing solutions.
So you cannot be just another NFT marketplace. You should have to be very narrow
on why you're building another NFT marketplace.
So, and there should definitely be a potential
for commercialization for your idea in the future.
If you don't have one, it's all right.
We'll help you plan it,
but there should be a potential for your idea
to be commercialized in the future.
Yeah, thanks, Joanna. So maybe do you want to highlight, to be commercialized in the future. Thanks, Joana.
So maybe do you want to highlight, do you want to give us some information on the curriculum?
Sure.
And you can expect from us.
Sure, thanks, Ram.
And I think that some of the points that Ram covered are, and if you click on the Apply Now button on our accelerator page, which is linked here in these spaces,
you will see that some of the things that Ram mentioned are covered as questions in the application form.
So we want that through the application form, you also do this exercise of thinking, you know, like who are your competitors, who are your personas.
do this exercise of thinking, you know, like who are your competitors, who are your personas.
So these are the type of things that we want projects to have thought and tested already
before applying.
And of course, if anyone has any question about each of these sections, we are always
happy to support and to help.
And as I mentioned in the beginning, we will have also a series of programs
and workshops and masterclasses to help you go through these steps. So talking a bit more about
what you as startup can expect from us. So as I said in the beginning, we don't believe in a one
size fits all. Of course, there are a series of content that we believe it's important to get you from a POC to an MVP. So that's our goal. And for that, of course, we want you to know about things like how to identify your success metrics, how to grow your campaigns and users, how to build a strong team, those types of things like how to improve your products from the UI and UX perspective, how to build partnerships, how to refine your revenue model. Some of them will be pre-recorded. Some of them will be live. And these workshops will be hosted by some of our team members on the Algorand Foundation
and some external experts.
But besides that, we will also assign to each startup a dedicated startup coach.
And that's because we believe it's important for you to have someone on your side, walking
with you through the journey and also mapping what are your gaps,
what are the needs that you have at certain points of time, what are the challenges that
you are facing as a founder, do you need leadership culture, do you need anything specific for
your team.
This will be the person who will basically connect the dots between you and what you
need and we will be here to support you and to give you
everything you need at the right time and assign you this coach who will be basically your best
friend and maybe part of your team throughout this journey. And also, aside on that, we will
have expert mentorship. This expert mentorship will be split between business mentoring
and product development mentoring. So we will have one or more than one business mentors to
walk with you through the journey. And you can think of, you know, from a business plan to a
marketing plan or something. That's why I was mentioning maybe one or more than one if the startup coach feels that you need support
with more than one area,
but also someone from the tech side,
the person who will be there with you,
helping you kind of translate into tech language,
what are the needs for your product to succeed
and for a successful main net launch.
And also besides that,
we have a pool of external consultants
in other areas like legal, compliance, accounting.
So things that are key, but you don't necessarily need a mentor.
You need some more of this advisor.
And we will also bring those advisors to you
and connect them with you when the timing is right.
And besides that, we will also have the product development support.
So the idea is that this product development support will be split between these mentoring
hours and office hours and workshops just dedicated for the content part of things.
So think of the CTO of your team will be the person that should definitely attend these workshops that cover from
agile development to scalable infrastructure to bugs and other issues, of course, the algorithm
tech integration, and how to launch successfully on mainnet. So I would say that's basically it. And of course, besides that, and in parallel to that,
we have a networking channel for all the founders
where we will be sharing not only content,
but also opportunities and trying to much make people,
teams, make connections, promote partnerships
between our existing ecosystem and these startups.
We will have a directory with all the content,
so not only the pre-recorded workshops,
but also documentation, things like Canvas or templates
that are important for you to fill throughout the program.
And, of course, introductions to our ecosystem, ecosystem support.
And in October, we will host a demo day
with our network of investors.
So the idea is that at the end, until October,
the startups should be ready to pitch their projects
to a pool of investors.
And we hope you get some funding
and your initial funding round.
So on that note, I will pass my word to you, Ram,
so you can walk us a bit on other types of support we have for these startups.
Yeah, thanks, Joanna.
So this year we're introducing Bridge Services and Talent Pool,
which is very interesting for me,
because as a founder, going from zero to one is very hard
because you're not just being good at what you're good at,
but you also have to learn multiple things.
You probably have to learn about marketing.
You probably have to learn about legal organizational structures
or you probably have to learn about community building.
And sometimes you probably don't have time
because that's what we do in accelerators
is you try to speed up the process between
speed of the process from zero to one.
So we know it's very hard to do everything with limited resources in this journey.
So we want to be there with you.
So that's where bridge services come in.
So we fill the gaps that your team has in terms of skills.
So it can be different gaps for different teams.
For pure developer-focused teams,
the gaps could be branding, marketing,
or for non-tech team, it could be the development support.
So that's where we try to come in with this bridge services.
We hire the people, we hire the experts
who will sit with you, who will help you do these things, but also they act as your mentor.
So you're not just getting these services, but you're also learning from them, plus they're your mentor.
So this way of practical learning, plus where you also get a lot of services from them, is quite interesting. And of course, at zero cost, because it's fully funded by Oregon Foundation,
that's the bridge services part,
but we're also introducing something called Talent Pool
because our ecosystem has a lot of independent
and talented devs.
And we want to provide an opportunity for developers
to contribute to the ecosystem.
And there are a lot of new startups that are coming up
looking for developers.
So what we are trying to do is we are trying to match
make the startups with the developers
and provide these developers an opportunity
to work with the startups.
Of course, this is again fully funded
by Oregon Foundation.
So we will be opening up the call for Talent Pool
and Bridge Service Partners partners soon so stay tuned
and please feel free to apply and yeah and that's about bridge services and talent pool
awesome thanks ram for sharing i think this is a very exciting opportunity not only for
our startups but as well for the talent on our ecosystem, which we have a lot. And this is not
only just for the developers, it's for everyone. So we're talking about the marketeers, the designers,
the creators, so everyone can definitely get involved in the process. And another thing I
wanted to mention, and also we will be hearing from Valar's experience. This is something that we piloted or tested throughout the incubator in 2024.
It was exactly this idea of matchmake the projects with the services they need and bring those services at the right time.
So we help the teams speed up and, of course, dedicate their time to what is crucial and key to their teams and the
things they really know how to do. And then we bring these external experts in to do exactly
what they don't know. But while they are also fulfilling these gaps, they are passing the
knowledge to the startups. And it was very, very successful. And I hope that Valart can share a
bit more on that experience with us as well.
And one of the other things I wanted to touch, and also it's something that I know it's very important and relevant for every startup, is that, you know, we acknowledge that those key, these bridge services or key developments are important at some stage of the startup.
So while you are building your MVP until you go live on mainnet.
But we also acknowledge that it reaches a point where these external parties are not 100% covering what is needed
because you need to grow the team or you need to pay for the infrastructure
or you require funding for any other types of support.
That's why we have also a third, I would say, layer of support, which is what we call the
ecosystem funding investments. So it's mini investments up to $50,000 for the startups to
help you exactly move along in this crucial phase of your startup.
So first, we will be bringing the services and the developments that are needed.
And once you are ready to grow, we will be bringing the money in to really kind of cover the costs that are key for your growth.
And our goal with this vision is from one side to really support you when it's needed and where it's needed, but also to help you reach these important milestones of growth.
And it goes not only for the new startups that are coming through the accelerator, but also the existing projects that are coming through the accelerator as well.
through the accelerator, but also the existing projects that are coming through the accelerator
as well. We want to help you get into that next level on your roadmap and this next big milestone.
And on that note, I think we are on a good pace to pass the word to Valar. Ram, I would like to
invite you to briefly introduce Valar. You worked closely on the incubator,
so I think you are the right person to make this intro.
And then we will hear from Valar's experience.
Yeah, thanks, Joanna.
I mean, Valar is a really interesting project
because Uroj and Alex, they're the co-founders of
Voila, which is a peer-to-peer staking platform on AllGrant. If you've been staking on AllGrant,
you've probably heard about them. And they already have up to 50 million staked on AllGrant since
the launch three months ago. And they have a very interesting journey where they started with bootcamps, and then they participated in the hackathon builder POC. And then they joined last year's
Allgorand Incubator, where they performed really well. And then they received funding from the
Allgorand Ventures, and then they continued to build a product. And now they're one of the
big DeFi protocols on Allgorand. So with that brief introduction, I'd
like to invite Alex from Valar to share
their experience of working with the incubator
and AllGround Foundation as a team.
Thank you, Ram.
Thank you, Joana, and everybody for having us today.
This is Alex speaking from Valar. As Ram mentioned, we're
basically a decentralized marketplace for staking. And the unique part of it is that the 50 million
that are being staked through Valar are not actually in our possession, but because it's
decentralized, it's in the custody of the owners of the funds. And our journey basically began about a year ago when we identified this problem and the potential technical solution to it.
We applied for the hackathon.
We had good results.
We won the hackathon.
That was a very nice experience.
And later on, we got invited to the incubator.
Now, the solution was technically sound, I think, already from the beginning,
but what we really benefited from was all of the business-related aspects.
So really getting to know and understand our users,
seeing which values they have and what their personas look like what they what
sort of an experience they want to get and on that aspect for example joanna helped us a lot
then we had the placement within the market so how can we really provide that added value to
these persons what are going to be the unique selling points?
And what are also some inspirations we can take from other protocols?
And with respect to that, we got a lot of feedback from Ram.
Then thirdly, one of the things where we benefited from was the brand identity definition.
So everything that goes into a brand, and it's basically most of it is messaging,
such as what does the logo look like?
Which colors do we use?
What sort of tone and which keywords do we use
in our brand?
And that was, for example, more the expertise of Christine,
who was back then with the Algorand Foundation.
And as a fourth mentor,
and he was actually assigned our coach,
we got a lot of assistance from Cosimo,
who's basically more looking into the technical aspects,
such as we are,
but he kind of shifted our perspective
from the technical solution to also understand how will
this relate to the user. So whether each feature should have the same priority and what should go
into the MVP and whatnot. So he basically helped us establish this connection between the technical aspects and the business preposition itself.
Now, Joanna also mentioned the matchmaking that we got support from or that we benefited from.
And these services included community management and setup.
Basically, if you're working full time on developing something technically
and chasing after a deadline,
in our case, it was the protocol upgrade when the staking rewards came out.
You have very, very limited time, even after sleeping for only four or five hours, to manage the community.
So we could learn how to automate things there and what makes sense, how much involvement and just how to lead a community on different communication channels.
That was very helpful.
And then we also got assistance in the branding again.
So when establishing the company graphics, the templates for our presentations,
the sort of things that are not maybe immediately visible,
but that you as a company, as a project need in the end
when you're discussing with different stakeholders.
So when a potential client approaches
that you already have a polished out,
let's say presentation that reflects everything that you do in the company and what the the project
itself does we received also guidance on financial and legal aspects although we did some of those
ourselves i think the only part where we had to dig a bit deeper was the incorporation itself, but I guess that's logical because at the end of the day, if you're incorporating somewhere, placing your money and your sweat, both of these are actually connected into something you want to understand the entire monetary structure, the economics of it.
economics of it. So in the end we, in our example, decided to incorporate in Switzerland but this is
entirely open just I would say anybody incorporating. It's good to have a good overview of different
jurisdictions globally and yeah I guess that pretty much wraps it up. We are working further now.
Looking further now, we have still support with regards to the technical development,
not just from this team, which I mentioned, but from all of the developers at the Algorand
Foundation and from the four coaches.
We still get feedback.
For example, last week I was drinking coffee with Ram at the Paris Blockchain Week,
discussing the entire journey and where to go from here on.
Now, I guess that's all from my side,
but if you have anything else,
or if I maybe missed something or was a bit vague,
please feel free to reach out to us.
So Uros is also in the chat.
I'm Alex speaking,
but you can also just write directly to us on this company channel. Thank you. Thank you so much, Alex. And it's great to
hear about your experience and to see your evolution and the developments after this
incubator. For us, it's an honor to see you grow and all the things that you keep conquering
in this ecosystem. And I think that one of the things that Alex mentioned is not only about
the support that you get through the programs, but also our vision of the real onboarding in
the ecosystem. We want these new startups that are coming through
the programs to become part of this existing ecosystem, this Algorand family that we already
have, promote connections with existing projects, promote you through our channels. I'm thinking that Valar recently took part of the developer retreat we had in Spain a few weeks ago.
So that's exactly part of the real onboarding we want to have.
This program is the first, I would say, experience on this onboarding and long-term onboarding on the ecosystem, but it's going to be a very smooth process where
while you are being part of it, you are already being introduced to the ecosystem. And I think
that was very clear in Valar's path. So on that note, and once we don't have that much to share
about the program, I'm seeing that we have one question in the chat.
And if anyone has questions
or if there's anything that you feel
that we haven't covered,
feel free to write here in the chat.
So sergo.algo asked us,
having gone through five months
of Barclays Rise Startup Academy,
my venture is way beyond identifying persona, etc.
Also have $50 billion worth of deal flow and have been accepted into regulatory sandbox in a GCC country.
Is that enough?
Sergo, I don't know if you're still here with us, but yes, of course, that is more than enough.
with us, but yes, of course, that is more than enough. I just want to be clear that our expectations
for the startups in this accelerator is to go from a proof of concept into a minimum viable product.
So from POC to MVP, reading what you wrote, I'm quite sure you are in a pretty much advanced stage than a minimum viable product, right?
So I believe you are in a growth stage, but we will be more than happy to help you and to provide you any type of content that you feel is just for you know to help projects on proof of concept to go to the
to the minimum viable product which means you know launching on mainnet having some initial
traction and then as they are onboarded we help them grow and scale exactly as Valar
just reported on their journey they started with an idea they went through all the programs of
the hackathons won the hackathon went into the incubator and now they're on their growth stage
so um we are here to to help and support on that stage as well ram um any final world words from
your side oh well uh i mean we already covered everything that we could,
but I mean, I really love the journey of Valar
through our whole funnel all the way from hackathons to,
you know, all the way from the ecosystem funding.
So I just hope to see many more Valars
and many more, you know, unicorn startups coming from this accelerator and more.
Love it. Love it. Thank you so much.
I've got one more question, guys, as well. Sorry.
If anyone's in the audience today listening and they think they have the next big idea in crypto
and want to bring it to market, what's the next step?
want to bring it to market what's the next step so um from idea for the idea stage i think our
web3 master classes will be the right place to start so the idea is that through the master
classes and the startup and the startup uh classes we will have and we'll walk you through that
moment where you have an idea how to generate
this idea into a problem statement and then how to come from a problem statement into a value
proposition who are your personas who are your competitors so like all this previous work that
is required for you to have a proof of concept. We will be walking you through that,
through these workshops, masterclasses,
and startup classes as well.
So if you have just an idea,
I wouldn't say the accelerator is the ideal place for you.
I would say you definitely need to go through
the earliest or the previous steps,
which we are here to help you as well.
And we will be promoting pretty soon.
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks, Sarah Jane.
I see that Sarah,
that the foundation just posted Sarah Jane's workshops
and masterclasses here.
So everyone is more than welcome to apply,
which will be a very, very exciting moment as well.
Perfect. Thank you.
And for those who have the fully fledged business,
where can they go to you today?
Yeah. So for those,
you will be more than welcome to apply for our accelerator.
We will be reviewing the accelerator applications on a weekly basis,
and we will be reaching out to all the startups.
Even if the startup is mature enough to go through the accelerator,
we will be reaching out to you and offering you our tailor-made support.
We are here to help the existing projects,
the projects that are growing
and the ones that are just starting their growing journey.
Amazing. Thank you very much.
Cool.
So I think that's the end of these spaces.
We will be accepting messages and DMs here on Slack.
Sorry, on X.
Feel free to reach out to us if you have any other question
or feel that we are not covering anything.
As I mentioned before, we have some frequently asked questions section
on our website.
Go there, have a look.
And if you feel that this is the right place
and program for you,
we will be very happy to receive your applications.
And we are very excited to kick off this program
and we can't wait to be interviewing
the next Valars of this year.
Thanks for being with us and I wish you a great Tuesday. Bye bye.
Good luck, my one of the new startups. Thank you.
