Cronos Labs Opens Doors for Participants in $100M Accelerator Program

Quick take:

• The recruitment phase began on September 4, 2023.
• This comes following the company’s second cohort, which began on May 15 before concluding at the end of July.
• The Cronos Labs Accelerator program is aimed at supporting early-stage crypto and AI projects.

Cronos Labs has started looking for participants in the third cohort of the Cronos Labs Accelerator program. The blockchain accelerator is looking for eight early-stage crypto startups to join its $100 million program, CoinDesk reported.

This announcement comes just a month after the conclusion of the second cohort, which began on May 15 and ended at the end of July.

The Cronos Accelerator program aims to support early-stage crypto projects through mentorship and funding. In the May-July cohort, Omnus, DeMe, Furrend, Solace, Sakaba, Eisen Finance, Earn Network and CorgiAI participated in the program, with each startup receiving $30 million in seed funding.

The company first announced the program in June 2022 with an initial focus on DeFi, Web3 gaming, infrastructure and tooling. The program is backed by the likes of Mechanism Capital, Spartan Labs, IOSG Ventures, OK Blockchain Capital, and AP Capital, among others.

The current cohort is targeting startups building at the intersection of crypto and AI,” Cronos Labs said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In particular, it is designed to attract projects utilizing AI to provide unparalleled speed and efficiency that will help take products to market.”

The announcement coincides with Korea Blockchain Week, which runs from September 4th to 10th and focuses on artificial intelligence.

Over the past 12 months, Web3 funding has slowed significantly amid the bear market. However, since the emergence of ChatGPT last November, blockchain companies have looked to leverage artificial intelligence in pursuit of the next growth phase.

The popularity of artificial intelligence has also reignited interest in the Web3 space, especially for startups that are looking to build at the intersection of AI and crypto.

On Monday, Bybit, one of the leading crypto exchange platforms launched TradeGPT. The AI-powered education tool leverages an AI model and Bybit’s real-time market data to provide users with real-time market analysis and answers to their questions in multiple languages.

Projects chosen for the $100 million Cronos Labs accelerator have access to AWS’ resources, including machine learning and AI-related workshops and mentorship sessions. Cronos has also signed up Google Cloud and blockchain security companies PeckShield and Certik as mentors for the program.

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