Binance Launches Startup Incubator Under ‘Labs’ Umbrella

Binance, on the heels of launching its own $1 billion investment fund, just announced the formation of a blockchain startup incubator. The new project is titled The Binance Labs Incubation Program.

The program comes with a $500k seed fund for members. In addition, it promises mentorship, network connections, and support services. Full details can be found here, on the Binance Labs official page.

The incubator will begin in mid-September, in San Francisco. It will accept 8-10 early stage groups and run through a 10-week period toward hyper growth. It describes itself further as a “program designed to help top early-stage teams to deliver a product/service with a Product/Market fit.”

Binance Continues Its Rapid Expansion

If this sounds aggressive, it certainly is. Binance, now the largest crypto exchange in the world, has shown no signs of stopping its own growth and acceleration this year. The Incubation program is just another step of the exchange expanding its reach into all things blockchain.

Binance Labs CEO Ella Zhang summed the program up, saying:

“Binance Labs began to do investments in the past few months and we’ve seen a lot of market hype which is distracting many founders from launching and delivering because there’s a huge demand from investors to get into their project,” Zhang said. “They need a lot of help to become a more mature team and company in order to really shape what they want to do.”

Binance Labs

Tapped to run Binance Labs as CEO, Zhang was an impressive addition to the Binance team. Previously, she worked in tech (Google, Tencent) and venture capital (Kleiner Perkins). That experience appears to be paying off as she leads Binance Labs into new territory.

Binance Labs has made several big headlines already this summer. In early July it led a $12 million fundraising round for startup Republic. Later that month it announced a partnership with Libra Credit, opening the door for BNB-backed loans.