Wanted: Way more DeFi projects

By Josh Quittner

CryptoKitties aside, the most successful use cases for Web3 technology so far are decentralized-finance companies. That’s partly why Tachyon, an accelerator backed by Brooklyn-based incubator ConsenSys, is looking to help fund up to 15 DeFi startups. 

But hurry kids! The application period to get your $150,000 in funding ends on September 16.

Tachyon’s managing director, Gabriel Anderson, said that the accelerator’s current push is around open finance: “This is where we think the next great Web3 startups will emerge from, as it’s the clearest killer use case for Ethereum as a technology.”

Just what is an "accelerator?"

“We're looking for 12-15 teams that we'll invest $150,000 in, for about 7-10 percent equity,” he added. “This makes us partners with our founders and ensures we're incentivized to open our network fully to them, to give them every chance to succeed.”

Anderson said accelerators such as Tachyon are “essentially high-speed incubators that take teams/projects that are ready, and give them capital a lot of mentorship, and access to a network of investors, early customers and various industry experts.” The program ends in February with an Investor Day, a closed-door meeting series with a group of early-stage investors.

The fine print

Accelerator funding typically comes after the Angel or “champagne” round, but before a Series A investment.

This particular project is known as Tachyon III. Companies incubated in the first two cohorts include Nuo, Quidli, Sooho, Blok-Z, and Glimpse. Anderson said that the program tapped alumni from those projects to design the open-finance initiative and turn it into “arguably, one of the best most founder-friendly programs on the market. And I'm not talking about Web3.0-specific accelerators, I'm talking about of any accelerator, period.”

(This is a good place to mention that Decrypt is funded by ConsenSys, too.)

Tachyon plans to notify the winning teams by the end of September. The winners are required to physically attend the program in New York, from November until February.

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