The Week in Polkadot: The Founder Institute Backs Polkadot Start-ups

Welcome to Decrypt’s Week in Polkadot, our regular round-up of the latest developments in the Polkadot ecosystem.

The Founder Institute to collaborate with Polkadot

The Founder Institute, a Silicon Valley start-up incubator that has helped firms such as Udemy, OddBox and FightCamp raise money, has announced a strategic collaboration with Polkadot.

The Founder Institute will help early-stage Web3 startups that are accepted into the latest cohort by offering them resources, mentorship and access to an international community of founders. Successful applicants will also receive support from key figures within the Polkadot community in areas like technology and scaling.

Since 2009, The Founder Institute's accelerator programs, which are primarily aimed at early pre-seed start-ups, have helped entrepreneurs raise over $1.75 billion in funding.

The program is currently accepting applications from builders, startup founders, and investors and will run from June 3 to August 2.

Applications are set to close on May 19.

Billionaire eyes decentralized TikTok

Frank McCourt, a real estate billionaire with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, claims he is working with investment bank Guggenheim Securities, who will advise on a “people’s bid” for TikTok.

The billionaire told Semafor that if his bid is successful, he plans to shift elements of TikTok’s technical framework to an architecture created by Project Liberty.

The project aims to give creators on social media more control over their data, using its own Decentralized Social Networking Protocol.

In 2022, Polkadot and Project Liberty entered into a formal agreement to collaborate on the first implementation of the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP).

At the annual ecosystem event Polkadot Decoded in 2022, Harry Evans, chief technology officer at Unfinished Labs, announced that the Frequency chain would eventually power the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP).

Frequency won its bid to become a parachain on Polkadot in November 2022, and its lease will last until at least September 2024.

Braxton Woodham, the President of Amplica Labs, sat down with The Kusamarian roughly a year ago to discuss how Frequency aims to help verify truth on social media.

Peaq to participate in Mastercard Start Path program

Peaq, one of Polkadot’s most widely adopted parachains, has been selected for Mastercard’s Start Path program.

Peaq’s parachain is used to run and maintain decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs), including sensors, wireless infrastructure, and energy grids, integrating these with Web3.

DePINs based on Peaq are being used for everything from combating noise pollution, in the case of Munich-based start-up Silencio Network, to rewarding drivers with crypto tokens in the case of drive-to-earn app Map Metrics.

The Mastercard program will work towards enabling machines on Peaq-native DePINs to leverage Mastercard's extensive network and functionality, as well as streamlining transactions between the Peaq ecosystem and the fiat space.

The collaboration will also explore the potential for Peaq to tap into Mastercard’s network for new partnerships and collaborations.

Previous alumni of Mastercard’s Start Program include European banking fintech Revolut and Swedish carbon tracking firm Doconomy.

The news of the collaboration comes after Peaq raised $15 million in March of this year in a round led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital.