• The NEAR Base Camp accelerator is NEAR Foundation's inaugural dedicated accelerator program, supporting startups building on NEAR and leveraging NEAR Discovery to redefine the Web3 user experience to help onboard one billion users into Web3.
  • The 12-week accelerator program provides participants with mentorship, education and up to $100,000 in funding with the option of additional support and $20,000 service credits provided by NEAR Horizon.
  • Applications will open 11th May and the program will commence mid-July, 2023. 

Global – Today, NEAR Foundation, the leading non-profit that supports the on-going growth and development of the Near Protocol and Outlier Ventures, the leading global Web3 investor and accelerator, announced the launch of the NEAR Base Camp accelerator program. The first dedicated accelerator program by NEAR Foundation will take a cohort of the most promising early-stage startups focused on building sustainable Web3 solutions to help on board the next billion users into Web3. With Outlier Ventures’ deep experience, the program will provide unparalleled access to subject matter expertise as well as mentorship from leading experts with up to $100,000 in funding with the option of an additional $20,000 service credits provided by NEAR Horizon, the NEAR Foundation’s Web3 startup support platform. Applications will open on 11th May and the program will begin in mid-July, lasting for 12 weeks. 

Founders can apply for the NEAR Base Camp accelerator program through Outlier Ventures' website on the application page and through the NEAR Horizon platform. Those selected for the NEAR Base Camp accelerator program will also have access to the NEAR Horizon platform, with the option of applying for $20,000 in credits to cover the cost of service providers across marketing, legal, back-office finance, product and infrastructure. NEAR Horizon allows founders to interact with a community of support through a double sided marketplace application built on the NEAR Blockchain Operating System. The marketplace connects founders to people and organizations to help them turbocharge their growth, including over fifteen service providers, forty mentors and over three hundred backers.  

“At Outlier Ventures, we are committed to supporting the best teams who are building products to help onboard one billion people into Web3,” said Jamie Burke, Founder and CEO of Outlier Ventures.  “Now more than ever, we need to be supporting founders and helping them scale their business.  Following NEAR's momentum with developers and their focus on ease of use and frictionless apps, we are thrilled to be partnering on the NEAR Base Camp accelerator program. Outlier Ventures brings unrivalled knowledge and expertise through our team and network and so together, this program will help bring a unique experience to founders."

The NEAR Base Camp accelerator program will be focused on providing solutions to building a more open web by onboarding the next billion users through an easy onboarding and simple user experience. The program will provide bespoke support tailored to the most talented early stage teams who are building projects with real world, utility-based use cases that attract Web2 users and companies while leveraging Web3 in novel ways to enhance the web experience.

The NEAR blockchain is an open-source, decentralized blockchain protocol that is designed to be scalable, developer-friendly, and able to support a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. NEAR has built the Blockchain Operating System (BOS), a Web3 stack to integrate experiences from across the Open Web and streamline the discovery and onboarding experience for users and developers alike. 

Commenting on the accelerator, Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation, said: "We are thrilled to be partnering with Outlier Ventures, one of the first investors dedicated to the emerging crypto ecosystem and one of the world's leading Web3 accelerators. Through our combined efforts, we will support the best top-notch talent in the ecosystem by giving them the tools they need to scale up their start ups sustainably, while also helping to set the pace of Web3 innovation in an open, diverse and socially impactful way." 

Successful teams will receive support from Outlier Ventures and NEAR Ecosystem’s team of in-house experts on their product roadmap, community building, token economy and launches, fundraising and pitching, governance and legal support along with support from industry leading mentors.  

Outlier Ventures is the global leading Web3 accelerator, creating programs that have been accelerating Web3 startups since 2019. With a portfolio of 220+ startups from every region of the world, notable alumni include DIAData, Boson Protocol, Auroboros, Fetch.AI, Ocean Protocol, among others, which have collectively raised over US$350m in seed capital. 

Applications for the NEAR Base Camp accelerator program open 11th May, 2023. The 12-week program will commence in mid-July 2023.  

For more information around Outlier Ventures’ Base Camp program and for founders who are interested in registering interest in the NEAR Base Camp program ahead of applications opening, please visit: https://outlierventures.io/base-camp/near