Ecosystem
Funding Program
Learn about the 2024 Ecosystem Funding Program vision and assumptions. If you're building something—we're here to help you make it a reality!
4 Track Variants
The goal of the Aleph Zero Ecosystem Funding Program is to fund innovations from developer teams that expand the capabilities, functionalities, and adoption of the Aleph Zero blockchain. Project ideas can range from proof-of-concept and early-stage companies to experienced teams with solutions deployed on different platforms.
The program is designed to cater to teams on all stages of development.
Fast Track
$10-30K
Choose between Fast Track and public good grant programs from the Aleph Zero Foundation.
Public Goods
Custom
Talk to us about supporting your public goods project, such as developer tooling, libraries, educational content, and more.
Growth Track
Custom
Existing projects with a proven business model, looking to expand to Aleph Zero and beyond
Nest
Custom
Hands-on incubator with support from the core team and various Aleph Zero partners. Let's find the product-market fit together!
Available grants
The grants and investments pool:
45 million USD
The grants will be distributed in various tiers, depending on several factors, depending on your project's needs and the applicability of the idea. Following application, verification, and the approval process, grant tiers are chosen by the project team in conjunction with the representatives of the Aleph Zero Foundation
Consideration criteria
Any project that adds value to the Aleph Zero ecosystem is welcome to apply. However, we are particularly interested in supporting teams that are focused on use cases in compliance, privacy, and scalability. These can range from novel ZK-SNARK applications to improvements on our DAG-based consensus protocol.
Adoption
as the Aleph Zero’s Foundation mission is to further the usefulness and adoption of the network, grants will be awarded to projects seeking to honestly increase the level of network’s usage.
Anonymity
while it’s okay for you to remain anonymous in public, the Aleph Zero Foundation will need to execute a KYC/KYB background check before making the decision about your application.
Ability to execute
Experience, skills, or the ability to learn extremely quickly are what’s being considered by the grant committee in approving your application.
Milestones
the Aleph Zero Foundation will not consider applications from projects without a clear cost breakdown and a clear development plan/roadmap.
Open Source or Open Learning
while not all projects will be able to open-source the entirety of their code, we do strongly recommend doing so whenever possible. If your project doesn’t require code, please make sure you share your learnings along the way for the benefit of the broader community.
Sanctioned jurisdictions
unfortunately, grants cannot be provided to builders from sanctioned jurisdictions.
Uniqueness
the Aleph Zero Foundation doesn’t fund copy-paste projects.
Request for proposals
The Ecosystem Funding Program is designed to support any activities leading to further adoption of the Aleph Zero network. While new products are the cornerstone of making Aleph Zero network the go-to platform for developers and users, there are several categories that can be supported by the EFP.
Developer Tooling
Education
Private DeFi apps
Sustainability
DAO Tooling
Academic Research
Metaverse
Application process
The Ecosystem Funding Program application review takes approximately 3 weeks. The best projects that complete the Ecosystem Funding Program may be chosen to pitch Aleph Zero’s VCs and secure further funding. There are also opportunities to have your project audited or receive marketing support.
Submissions should include information about deliverables, projected milestones, and justification for funding requests. Possible deviations from the specified scope of the project should be discussed with the Aleph Zero Foundation.
Application
Project team sends the application
Evaluation
The Foundation evaluates the project according to the criteria
Track assignment
After successful verification, we get together to discuss whether the chosen track is indeed optimal for you and your team.
Welcome!
We'll be excited to onboard you to EFP as soon as the necessary steps and due dilligence is concluded.