Axelar's $60 million fund for building Web3 start-ups

The interchain communications protocol, Axelar, has announced a $60 million funding programme to drive innovation for building Web3 startups during the bearish market.

"The Axelar Ecosystem Startup Funding Program is designed to fuel a pipeline of developers building Web3 products that compete with anything on the centralised web."

Given the current cryptocurrency landscape, such funds are likely to become a lifeline for new developers looking to move into the space, as well as early-stage startups in need of funding to survive the Crypto Winter.

Axelar said the fund is "geared towards projects ready to raise institutional capital" while its Axelar Grant Program"supports projects in the ideation stage".

Applications for the Ecosystem Funding Programme can be submitted via the Axelar grant application form. Those in the 'idea phase' can apply for an Axelar grant via the project website.

"The Ecosystem Funding Program is an investor in our ecosystem that focuses on that stream of high-quality interchain projects.

The announcement revealed that the fund is backed by "crypto-native investment firms" including Blockchange, Chorus One, Collab+Currency, Cygni Capital, dao5, DCVC, Divergence Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Lemniscap, Morningstar Ventures, Nima Capital, Node Capital, North Island Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, SCB 10X and others.

The new fund is intended for projects that seek to address the following problems:

• Resolve global problems that the centralised Internet cannot solve.
• Secure digital sovereignty, security and privacy.
• Easily integrate the masses, without unnecessary friction between blockchains or specific tokens.

According to people close to the issue, the support of Axelar and its partners has already made a difference to the ecosystem.

"Many of the services come from Axelar and our ecosystem partners. Circle, Polygon, for example:"We work closely with them to support new projects in their ecosystems. Building interchains is also new for experienced Web3 developers."

Prime Protocol, an Axelar collaborator

"Prime has been collaborating with Axelar for quite some time. We believe that the future is multi-chain and #DeFi needs new financial primitives to increase capital efficiency."