Algorand Ventures is the new program dedicated to providing funding and launch support to the best builders and investors in the Algorand ecosystem.
Dubai, November 29th, 2022 - What a long, strange trip it’s been! From the inception of the Algorand Foundation’s flagship AlgoGrants program in April 2020 to today’s announcement of Algorand Ventures, we have learned, evolved, and grown in our collective approach to supporting the key apps and infrastructure needed to push the ecosystem forward. So let’s take a look back at where we have come from, what’s been done, and the vision of the road ahead for AV.
AlgoGrants (2020-2022)
In the very early days of Algorand, the AlgoGrants program was necessary to reward dev teams and business partners to build out the mission critical suite of tools and infrastructure required to launch an initial set of apps and ASAs.
While AlgoGrants helped get Algorand adoption off the ground, it eventually outgrew its usefulness as wallet growth required launch of successful apps, stablecoins, and NFT collections amongst other cool things happening on-chain.
Burdensome milestone reviews, misaligned incentives, and lack of vertical focus ultimately led to the decision to retire AlgoGrants in March 2022.
Ecosystem Funding (2022)
After the retirement of AlgoGrants, the Foundation embarked on a vertical-led ecosystem funding program. These opportunities were available via referral only and came in the form of both grants and token and/or equity investments, with a priority placed on sharing the upside in project success. This year alone, the Foundation made over sixty investments into projects spanning DeFi, web3, developer tools, impact, gaming, and more.
Going forward, status updates on these projects will be shared as an addendum to biannual transparency reports. It is critical for the community-at-large to have line of sight into the portfolio investments of Algorand Ventures so we can pool our collective efforts in supporting top apps and ecosystem projects.
Algorand Ventures (2023 and beyond)
One of the most consequential developments for Algorand Foundation this year (amongst many others!) is the establishment of dedicated subject matter experts in various growth sectors of web3. These folks are affectionately referred to as our “vertical leads”, but you might prefer to think of them as degens in the most positive sense. They eat, sleep, and breathe Algorand and are driven by the spirit of service to make their respective communities strong and successful. These vertical leads sit on the frontiers of the industry, scouting top talent and concepts to come build on Algorand. By redoubling our efforts in some of the most important emerging themes in web3 we have the ability to simultaneously focus on making concentrated vertical bets while lending more tailored support to builders at every stage of their Algorand journey.
From an operational perspective, it is essential to pair this deep knowledge with some more standard management practices to effectively assemble a strong project pipeline and venture portfolio.
Algorand Ventures combines the cryptonative knowledge of the #Algofam community with the Foundation’s ability to support projects at different stages of their lifecycle. To that end, AV makes investments in the ecosystem in three ways:
- Pre-seed projects via accelerator programs: AV is doubling down on accelerators by beefing up the regional coverage, mentorship networks, VC connections, technical curriculum, and more. Algorand will have best-in-class support for builders coming into the ecosystem on day 1. Stay tuned for details on specific programs but the goal is to accelerate at least 50 projects per year, if not many more.
- Seed projects via partner funds: The Foundation has long been working side by side with the two preeminent Algorand ecosystem funds - Borderless and Arrington Capital. Today we are proud to announce that earlier this year the Foundation became a limited partner in both of these funds. Projects raising seed stage funding can pitch Algorand Ventures alongside Borderless and Arrington. While AV will not lead or anchor these rounds, we are willing to occasionally co-lead seed rounds and work to secure commitments from other investors that want to come into the Algorand ecosystem.
- Scale projects via direct investments: Scale stage investments are intended for the household names of Algorand: Tinyman, AlgoFi, Folks Finance, and more come to mind… the prerequisite is having serious tech and serious traction amongst users to warrant consideration. Once Algorand Ventures has committed to a scale investment we will work tirelessly with these teams to bring them to the next level not only within Algorand but within the web3 world at large.
So that’s Algorand Ventures in a nutshell. We have already been tweaking and optimizing how AV operates in earnest of the big announcement at Decipher and look forward to hitting the ground running in 2023 with ongoing news and updates. You can expect a steady stream of exciting announcements and activations around projects in the Algorand Ventures portfolio. Ultimately the goal is to invest in hundreds of projects that are central to achieving Silvio’s vision of a dynamic, inclusive, and borderless global ecosystem operating at scale on Algorand.
Algorand Ventures - We grow with you.
