EMURGO and Adaverse restate their commitment to funding blockchain-oriented startups at the Blockchain Founders Hangout 2.0

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August 19, 2022
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4 min read

The executives of EMURGO and Adaverse hosted founders and members of blockchain communities and media at the Blockchain Founders Hangout 2.0 on Monday, August 15, 2022.

The hangout brought together founders, potential founders, and investors from EMURGO and Adaverse and created an avenue for networking and sharing ideas. Founders had the opportunity to briefly pitch their ideas and engage the EMURGO and Adaverse teams. 

In attendance were Shogo Ishida, Co-CEO for Middle East and Africa at EMURGO Africa; Yosuke Yoshida, Co-CEO for Middle East and Africa at EMURGO Africa; William Phelps, Adaverse Investment Manager; Hiroshi Yokoyama, Growth Partner, Cardano Africa; Chimezie Chuta, Adaverse Partner, and other members of the EMURGO and Adaverse teams. 

Chimezie Chuta gave the opening remark and spoke about how blockchain technology can transform lives and how that led to the founding of Adaverse, a Cardano Ecosystem Accelerator focused on providing funding to blockchain-oriented startups in Africa.

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Chuta said they have done their research and are looking at the areas where people can get funding, saying that beyond funding, Adaverse also teaches people other things they need to grow their startup via an accelerator programme. 

Yosuke Yoshida gave a brief lecture on the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO. According to him, Cardano is a third-generation blockchain. Ranked sixth in the crypto market cap, it is an open-source proof-of-stake blockchain project launched in 2015 to address existing challenges in cryptocurrency design and development. 

Yoshida said the Cardano blockchain is solving the issues of scalability, interoperability, and sustainability better than other blockchains, adding that the goal of the Cardano Foundation is to be the leading project for the next decade. 

He discussed the development benefits and advantages of the Cardano blockchain over most blockchains and listed some of EMURGO's products, including the Yoroi Wallet and Fibo, Cardano's open-source NFT marketplace. 

Shogo Ishida came on stage after Yoshida to discuss EMURGO's activities in Africa. 

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He spoke on how founders can get funding from venture capital (VC) firms. Before adding that VCs have to benefit when they invest, he said, "the first thing you should know is that VCs have their interests and motivation when they want to invest." 

Ishida said that one of the challenges of VCs in Nigeria and Africa is the lack of credit score or identification. 

He said, "as VCs, we have a very strong interest in expanding in Africa." According to him, this is reinforced by the many creative products they have seen from this part of the world.

Ishida spoke about one of their recent investments, AfriBlocks — a pan-African freelance marketplace based in Zimbabwe.

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Using AfriBlocks' success story as an example, Ishida said people seeking funding should have a clear and concise mission statement. Secondly, he said that the solutions to the problems businesses are trying to solve must align. Also, the projects should match their achievements with milestones shown as evidence. He concluded by advising founders to have a team with members whose careers are relevant to what they are building.

Buttressing Ishida's point about founders having a team, William Phelps said that investors are not likely to invest if there is no team.  

He also advised founders not to rush to get funding but instead first grow organically. According to him, bootstrapped projects show more promise to investors than projects that are not bootstrapped.

He said founders should always ask themselves if it is the right time to give away equity. He concluded by advising the founders present to know their projects, be clear about what they are looking for in terms of funding, and exercise patience. 

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Founders who need funding are encouraged to send pitch deck to https://www.f6s.com/adaverse-accelerator/apply 

About Adaverse 

Adaverse is a catalyst for the Cardano ecosystem in Africa dedicated to invest, mentor and provide tech support for organically grown startups building the next wave of Web3 decentralized applications including NFTs, DeFi, and others on Cardano’s third-generation blockchain. visit website - www.adaverse.co 

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