Binance Labs to Invest in Seven Projects From the MVB Accelerator Program Co-led by BNB Chain

Main Takeaways:

• The Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator Program is an accelerator program co-led by Binance Labs and BNB Chain to offer mentorship and funding to emerging projects built on top of the BNB Chain. 

• The fifth season that kicked off in June 2022 was the first iteration where top-performing projects were selected by Binance Labs for investment.

• Binance Labs will invest in seven selected projects from the MVB Program, ranging across DeFi, infrastructure & tooling, NFT, and GameFi sectors.

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and accelerator of Binance, will invest in seven selected projects from The Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator Program co-led by BNB Chain. The accelerator program aims to offer mentorship and funding to project founders while helping them onboard and scale on the BNB Chain.

With over 700 applications, the fifth cohort of the MVB Accelerator Program that kicked off in June 2022 is the most contested iteration to date. Throughout the 3-month incubation period, Binance Labs provided coaching, network assistance, and ecosystem integration support. Project founders collected insights from industry veterans on various topics, such as product innovation, infrastructure scaling, user optimization, strategic branding, and tokenomics, during 10+ workshop sessions led by Binance Labs.* 

Yi He, Co-Founder of Binance and Head of Binance Labs, commented: "The MVB Accelerator Program helps innovative projects scale on the BNB Chain so they can reach their full potential. Binance Labs supports founders on their product, operations, community, and capital needs. These projects will grow further and positively impact the BNB Chain and the broader crypto ecosystem."  

Tyler Z. Investment Manager at Binance Labs, said: “Binance Labs is pleased to co-lead the MVB Accelerator Program, and connect with project founders via dedicated curriculums, mentoring sessions, and fireside chats over the past three months. The fifth season is the first iteration where top-performing projects were selected by Binance Labs for investment. We look forward to seeing these projects develop further and scale on the BNB Chain.”

The Binance Labs team also conducted in-depth project analysis and investment assessment, while collaborating with the BNB Chain growth team, CoinMarketCap, Trust Wallet, CertiK, and PancakeSwap on ecosystem integration. Top-performing projects were invited to an investment-focused demo day with venture capitalists and Binance Labs’ limited partners. Listed in no specific order, the seven projects selected for investment are as follows:

• Space ID is building decentralized, censorship-resistant, and open-sourced universal identifiers. Its naming service network allows users to use one human-readable domain name to represent their identities across individual DApps and blockchains. Each domain service is built around the following properties:

  • A universal username equipped with multi-chain interoperability. 

  • A decentralized identity in a single source of truth (SSOT) system. 

  • An ad-hoc oracle chain to enhance scalability and availability.

• Overeality is building the infrastructure for Web3 interoperability and scalability. It designs and implements scalable zero-knowledge proof systems for zkBridge and ZK-rollups acceleration. The key features and products of Overeality include: 

  • deVirgo is a distributed zero-knowledge proof protocol that combines sumcheck and polynomial commitment schemes. It runs on distributed machines and ensures a shorter proof generation time.

  • Gemini is a hardware-friendly zero-knowledge proof protocol designed to verify the history of a blockchain. It helps speed up ZK-rollups.

  • Other products include zkBridge for trustless cross-chain communication, programmable NFT protocols, and Meta-ID for cross-chain authentication.

• Multichain Event Protocol (MEP) is an interoperability communication protocol. It can be described as a secure mutual communication channel built on top of a multichain cache, authentication service, and execution environment. Its architecture is as follows:

  • Cross-chain solutions are achieved via user-customized sub-protocols and messages.

  • All the events used for multichain messaging are publicly verifiable by anyone with an authentication service.

  • The execution environment of MEP delivers a secure kernel to run sub-protocols free from issues such as a Byzantine fault or an event disorder. The decentralized network is built with a delegated proof of stake (DPoS) and HotStuff as consensus.

• Meta Apes is a free-to-play and win-to-earn mobile strategy game. It’s the first game built and launched on the BNB Sidechain, and has over 400,000 global players. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where humanity has ended and a new era ruled by Apes has begun. The core features of the gameplay include: 

  • Building: Players will grow their city and troops by managing resources, training, and conducting research.

  • Competition: Players will fight player-versus-player (PvP) or player-versus-environment (PvE) battles and participate in different challenges.

  • Community & Exploration: Players will collaborate and strategize with their team members to journey around and discover a world full of surprises.

• Velvet Capital makes DeFi sleeker and safer by helping users invest into tokenized portfolios automatically. It supports assets across different projects and ecosystems to ensure a broader exposure, while allowing users to earn additional yield. Its core features include:

  • A streamlined experience for users to invest in tokenized Web3 index funds, portfolios, and other financial products with privacy protection.

  • A cross-chain asset management protocol that supports the creation of a single strategy or portfolio across multiple chains.

  • “DeFi-as-a-Service” (DaaS) for institutions, which can use the protocol to create their own funds, strategies and other financial products.

• Web3Go is a multichain open data analytics platform that supports push notifications for on-chain events. It indexes blockchain data and presents them in a formatted manner so that users can translate data into visualizations. Its core products include but not limited to: 

  • A marketplace that offers user-generated data dashboards and customized dashboard APIs. 

  • Real-time notifications to provide customizable alerts for on-chain activities.

  • Cross-chain Web3 IDs to enable additional social discovery and engagement.

• Gameta is a platform that allows users to play different casual games under one roof. The team aims to build a smooth Web3 migration process for users. Its tractions include: 

  • A GameFi project built on the BNB Chain and has a decent amount of daily active users.

  • The platform offers nine casual games and has over 20 applications in development. 

Gwendolyn Regina, Investment Director at BNB Chain, added: “The projects have received strong mentoring and support from BNB Chain and the Binance Labs ecosystem. This includes general tech and product, tokenomics advisory, community and regional market support. There is also tech advice and integration with BNB Chain, CoinMarketCap, and Trust Wallet infrastructure support, which will help the projects grow quickly and integrate into the entire ecosystem.”

About Binance Labs

Since 2018, Binance Labs has invested in more than 200 projects from over 25 countries. It has also incubated about 50 goal projects that are native to Web3 via the Binance Labs Incubation Program, including Polygon, Perpetual Protocol, Dune Analytics, and more. As the venture capital arm and accelerator of Binance, Binance Labs is on the continued lookout for the next big Web3 innovation.

For more information, follow Binance Labs on Twitter.

*The next season of the MVB Program is scheduled to kickstart in November 2022. Stay connected with us on Twitter for the latest updates!

About BNB Chain

BNB Chain is a community-driven, decentralized, and censorship-resistant blockchain powered by BNB. It consists of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is EVM compatible and facilitates a multichain ecosystem.

BNB Chain is the world’s largest smart contract blockchain in terms of transaction volume and daily active users. It has processed three billion transactions to date from 163 million unique addresses, bringing developers massive user access with ultra-low gas fees and zero downtime since inception. The ecosystem has more than 1,300 active dApps across multiple categories such as DeFi, Metaverse, blockchain games, NFT, and more. 

For more information, follow BNB Chain on Twitter.