Team1 Builder Grants fund builders who are shipping on Avalanche. The program is live and open to anyone, anywhere. The committee has formed, is meeting, and has already chosen a first Accelerator Grant recipient.
The First Accelerator Grant: YourGrails
The first pick went to YourGrails, a platform built around graded trading cards that live onchain.
You buy a sealed pack with USDC and rip it open. Inside is a digital representation of a physical card, scored by an independent grader for condition and authenticity. From there, it’s yours to do what you want with it. Keep it. List it for a 90% buyback. Stake it in a head-to-head battle where the winner takes the pot. Even ship the physical card to your door. The cards themselves sit graded, vaulted, and insured, so you’re holding something real the whole time.
It’s a working product, currently in beta, built by a team that shows up every day for the community. The grant amount was set at $30,000 and approved at the committee’s first meeting. A solid way to open the account.
Team1’s Latest Mini-Grant: Empowr
The newest Mini Grant, $5,000, went to Empowr by @TippiklLabs, a proposed onchain bounty platform aimed at creating earning opportunities for the community. The funding is released in two stages: half up front, half once the project ships and five ecosystem projects have posted a bounty, with Team1 lining up as the first user. Kieron is a Team1 UK member who’s shown up consistently for the ecosystem, and that steady presence is exactly the kind of commitment these grants are meant to back.
How the program works
Two tracks make up Team1 Builder Grants, each designed to catch builders at different stages. The mini-grants came first, earlier this year. Recipients shipped, got noticed, and several went on to win builder competitions. Accelerator Grants are the next stop for builders who’ve proven themselves and are ready to scale.
Accelerator Grants reach $30,000 with no application to fill out. The committee proposes projects and votes on them, and a project with real momentum can be fast-tracked straight through without starting at a mini-grant.
Mini Grants cap at $10,000 and stay open to everyone. This is the entry point, the place to start when you’re after your first bit of backing and ready to show what you can do. Builders must fill out an application.
Both tracks are global and ongoing. Anyone can apply, and we want you to. The grants go to builders committed to Avalanche for the long haul, the ones growing communities that last and lifting the whole ecosystem as they go. That commitment is what the committee puts significant weighting on.
Prior Foundation funding counts as a factor, but it won’t close the door on you.
The Committee is Set
The Accelerator Grants committee has been announced: ten people spanning Team1, the community, Ava Labs, and the Avalanche Foundation, weighted most heavily toward the community and Team1. They meet once a month; any member can submit a project, and a majority vote approves it.
They’re already at it. The first grant went from proposal to approved on the committee’s opening call, and they got YourGrails over the line in the program’s first week.
Get Involved
Are you building something people are starting to use? This is your opening. Mini-grant applications are live right now, and that’s the front door for most early projects.
Apply for a mini-grant here: https://www.team1.network/grants
Know a builder who deserves a look? Share this, tag them, and tell us what they’ve shipped. We’re watching.
Team1 Mini Grants application does not guarantee a grant. A high volume of applications and participation does not guarantee funding.
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