9 months ago
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Of 12 projects announced to participate in sixth season of Binance Labs’ incubation program, three have been selected as the first batch.
Binance Labs has announced the first batch of projects to benefit from Season 6 of the company’s incubator. The Binance incubation project will invest in three startups, including Ethena Labs, NFPromt, and Shogun.
Selected Binance Incubation Projects
While Binance has not provided extensive details of the incubation, it described each startup on an X thread. A post describes Ethena Labs as a derivative infrastructure provider seeking to turn Ether (ETH) into a crypto-native stablecoin that does not rely on traditional banking systems. There’s also NFPromt, a content platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and designed for Web3 creators. According to Binance Labs, NFPromt combines standards, including NFT, inscription, and 404, in an all-in-one platform for social communities and commercialization.
Binance Lab’s sixth incubation season is also investing in Shogun, a protocol that uses complete chain abstraction and optimized orderflow to maximize trader extractable value (TEV).
Binance Labs says there will be a new batch of S6 Incubation investments without indicating a number or timeline. The thread also specifies that there is no difference between the batches.
Last September, Binance Labs announced 12 crypto projects that will participate in Season 6 of its incubation project. In addition to the three projects now confirmed, the list included projects across Infrastructure, DeFi (decentralized finance), AI-Powered DApps (decentralized applications), and GameFi/SocialFi. The program will last for two months and expose founders to one-on-one mentorship in addition to extensive resources across the Binance ecosystem. Explaining the incubation program, Head of Binance Labs and Binance Co-Founder Yi He noted:
“At Binance Labs, our mission is to identify and support early-stage founders who have demonstrated the capacity to create innovative technological solutions, thereby positively impacting the broader Web3 ecosystem. Through our Incubation Program, we leverage resources from our entire ecosystem to provide advisory support, enabling founders of early-stage projects to grow alongside us.”
Binance Labs So Far
As of last month, Binance Labs has invested in 250 projects in 25 countries since launching in 2018. Interestingly, the incubation platform has seen 14x returns in that time, directly involved in the launch of about 50 startups. Popular names include Polygon, Injective Protocol, and Dune.
In total, Binance had 25 new investments in 2023. Despite the uncertainty in the crypto market last year, Binance Labs continued to invest in projects, earning recognition from Messari as the most active crypto venture capital investor in the second and third quarters. In 2023, Binance Labs invested in notable projects like Curve DAO, Delphinus Labs, Arkham Token, Sleepless AI, and Helio Money. While Curve received $5 million, Helio Protocol and Xterio received $10 million and $15 million, respectively.
Last November, Binance Labs, BNB Chain, and CMC Labs introduced a Founder Track to its Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator Program. Launched in 2021, the program supports builders on the BNB Chain ecosystem, and has newly welcomed CMC Labs as a strategic partner. The Founder Track plans to incubate 100 innovative ideas that create solutions to real-world problems.
