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In conjunction with the launch of the Neo X sidechain, Neo has established the Elevate Program to incentivize teams to build on the ecosystem’s new EVM-compatible and MEV-resistant chain. Elevate is a funding initiative with US $20 million available to builders seeking to launch new or existing projects on Neo X.
The program aims to empower early-stage projects by ensuring they have funds to develop, grow, and effectively scale operations. Elevate is also designed to support projects that have established themselves in other ecosystems, including mainstream dApps and core infrastructure. Ultimately, Elevate hopes to incentivize both new teams with fresh ideas and established projects with successful business models to join the Neo X ecosystem.
Teams can apply to three distinct areas for funding.
The Funding Tracks
The Elevate Program is designed for teams with various levels of experience building Web3 products. Two of these tracks, Genesis and Partner, are designed to provide funding to teams without the expectation of financial return. Meanwhile, the Elevate Investment path is oriented toward larger-scale products and teams with established footholds on alternate EVM blockchain networks.
The Genesis Track is aimed at supporting early-stage projects and offers up to $50,000 in funding per grant. It is intended to provide financial aid to projects building in any Web3 vertical, including DeFi, GameFi, NFTs, DeSoc, AI, and other emerging trends. In addition to vertical-specific projects, teams or individuals can apply for Genesis track funding for developer tools, libraries, educational resources, and other features like wallets, explorers, and on-chain data aggregators.
The Partner Track is ideal for established infrastructure projects that are already live on EVM networks and have users or traction. Examples of potential submissions for the Partner Track include RPC node providers, indexing solutions, oracle networks, and interoperability projects. The Partner Track aims to enhance the foundation of tooling and SDKs in the Neo X ecosystem.
Elevate Investment offers funding packages of up to $500,000, oriented toward established projects with a minimum of six months of operation and a proven business model. Projects that apply for Investment Track funding should also have demonstrable KPIs of use and activity, such as monthly active users and total value locked. Examples of Investment Track projects can include decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, perpetual products, launchpads, liquid staking derivatives, restaking platforms, account abstraction (smart contract wallets), stablecoins, and NFT platforms.
Applying to Elevate
After submitting a grant proposal, the review process will take around a month for Neo Global Development to examine the application and ensure appropriate criteria are met. Once approved, the successful recipient will receive funding in either NEO/GAS or stablecoin, which will be released at agreed upon milestones.
More information about the Elevate grants program can be found at the link below:
https://x.neo.org/elevate