Introducing Base Camp Accelerator: For three months pre-seed projects can join Outlier Ventures in a unique Convergence Accelerator programme ‘Base Camp’ to define and build their project alongside experts, mentors, ecosystem, and leading minds of web 3.0.
We are focused on building out our vision of what is necessary for web 3.0 to be successful – “The Convergence Stack” a further refinement of our thesis anticipating the convergence of blockchains with IoT, AI and eventually robotics.
We are already supporting projects across the stack, including Imperial College London, Smart Dubai, Deutsche Telekom, IOTA, Fetch.AI, and Sovrin, but there a number of areas that are that we note are underserved: learning, storage, networking, middleware and user experience. Although we are interested in applications from all areas of the Stack, we are particularly interested in these areas.
Personalised program to accelerate fundamental innovations
Leveraging the combined resources of our tried and tested venture platform we will add measurable value where each team needs it most. This is a bespoke solution for accelerating the billion-dollar token networks and transformational web 3.0 businesses of tomorrow.
This program will provide clarity on your pitch, positioning, and have developed traction in your product to be in the best possible shape to secure your first seed round of funding. This is a unique opportunity to get inside access to the industry and build your venture.
Why is Outlier Ventures the right early-stage investor?
Outlier Ventures is a venture platform designed to support decentralised projects to design, build, and scale at every stage of their development. With 30 staff and partners across Europe, USA, and Asia dedicated to building an open data economy
We provide early-stage funding, as well as providing support via relationships, introductions, and access to specialists from across the venture platform. We have incubates and supported leading web 3.0 teams, and can bring a powerhouse of support to ventures building web 3.0 infrastructure.
Base Camp
From September 2019 until December 2019, the team at Outlier Ventures will provide funding, coaching, resources, connections, and ecosystem. In exchange, we ask for 6% of equity, and 6% of any future token supply, and the option to be the first money into any subsequent fundraising round.
- Funding: Selected founding teams will receive £35,000 in immediate investment, and up to £200,000 in total funding
- Coaching: We provide critical in-house mentorship that will turn your decentralised concept into a fundable project.
- Resources: Outlier Ventures will provide incubation space, hub services and valuable domain expertise.
- Connections: Our global network with investors, exchanges, development talent and others, will expand and enable your future network.
- Ecosystem: Access to The Convergence Ecosystem will bring corporate, academic and blockchain-based relationships within arm’s reach.
Who we are looking for: Leaders and teams with concepts in the decentralised space that fit our vision of the future web
At Outlier Ventures we are interested in leaders and founders who want to build an open data economy. Possible a small team with both technical and business expertise that may have raised a small amount of money before, and are looking for your next step to accelerate your proposition.
We are particularly looking for projects that fit into our investment and advisory thesis The Convergence Stack. We believe that there is a new emerging web paradigm that will be open-source, decentralised and in the end will be more equitable. Part of the stack is a set of hardware technologies, software technologies, networking and applications that all together are forming a more accessible and secure web.
However, we want to make sure that this web is designed and built by people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to ensure the future web is inclusive and works for all.
The Convergence Stack
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The opportunities we are looking for lie in the following areas of The Convergence Stack:
- Learning: Today machine learning is extremely concentrated. Data, algorithms, and trained models are owned by a select few global Internet giants. Techniques like federated learning, differential privacy, homomorphic encryption, and tokenization enables us to build secure, privacy-preserving, and collectively-owned machine learning. There is an opportunity to create software for an AI economy that supports a more equitable data economy.
- Storage: It refers to how and where information is stored and the rules governing how it can be accessed. Instead of data being stored in the ‘cloud’ on the servers of a select few companies, new storage architecture aims to store data on peer-to-peer decentralised networks. We think the introduction of price and market dynamics for storage opens up a whole new innovation area for edge software that is only just being explored.
- Networking: We need to make sure telecommunications networks do not become a point of trust in the convergence stack. With open-source hardware projects working on networking equipment, the software that runs on the equipment in the next component that needs to be decentralized. Software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are making networks more flexible and configurable. We want to support projects that are working to deliver networking software is both open-source and cryptographically secure.
- Middleware: A bundle of APIs sitting below the interface layer providing services to developers to make it easier and faster to deliver applications and marketplaces. Middleware in this context is a coordination mechanism. If organisations are a collection of people bundled to solve a customer problem, middleware is a collection of APIs bundled to solve application-specific software problems. This turns low-level generalized protocols into application-specific tools. We want to support projects that make it easy to deliver new market solutions utilising the lower level protocols and software in the stack for things like 3d printing and robotics.
- User experience: This refers to a range of interfaces that make interacting with decentralized protocols and technologies more convenient and intuitive. UX includes things like browsers and mobile apps that dominated Web1 and Web2 but also emerging interfaces that will become more important such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), voice interfaces (VUI), conversational interfaces (CUIs) and NFC tags. We think there is a huge opportunity for startups to onboard billions of Internet users with well-designed experiences to make interacting with blockchains, tokens and smart contracts not just easier but delightful.
How our Base Camp works?
To find out how Base Camp works and its different stages such as selection process, on-boarding, idea refinement, product development, elective content, fundraising, and aftercare, please visit our Base Camp launch page
How can you apply for Base Camp?
We are working with F6S.com for the accelerator application process. Please visit our application form on their site and create a profile.
Please note the accelerator is based in London, UK, and you will need to be physically present in London during September – December this year.
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. This article does not amount to an invitation or inducement to buy or sell an investment nor does it solicit any such offer or invitation in any jurisdiction.
In all cases, readers should conduct their own investigation and analysis of the data in the article. All statements of opinion and/or belief contained in this article and all views expressed and all projections, forecasts or statements relating to expectations regarding future events represent Outlier Ventures Operation Limited own assessment and interpretation of information available as at the date of this article.
No responsibility or liability is accepted by Outlier Ventures Operations Limited or Sapia Partners LLP for reliance on the contents of this article.
Outlier Ventures is an Appointed Representative of Sapia Partners LLP, a firm authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
