Binance Labs, the $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of crypto exchange Binance, has invested in seven startups from its incubation Season 6 program.
The seven startups are Ethena Labs, a developer of synthetic dollar protocols; Derivio, a zkSync-based decentralized derivatives exchange; Shogun, an intent-driven DeFi protocol that aims to maximize the trader’s extractable value; UXUY, a decentralized trading platform; Cellula, an on-chain autonomous developer of life simulation strategies; NFPrompt, an AI-powered web3 platform for user-generated content; and QnA3, an AI-powered Web3 knowledge sharing platform, Binance Labs said Friday. It did not disclose investment amounts in the seven startups.
This marks the conclusion of the Season 6 program that began last December. The incubation program initially included twelve startups, but ultimately invested in seven. A spokesperson for Binance Labs told The Block that the company does not invest in all startups it incubates, noting that the incubation is intended to support founders, with investments not guaranteed.
For example, Binance Labs’ Season 5 incubator invested in five startups last year, including zkPass, Mind Network and DappOS, out of a total of twelve it selected first.
Binance Labs incubation season 7
The season 7 schedule will be launched soon. “We are currently looking for forward-thinking founders of early-stage projects to join the program,” Binance Labs said, adding that the application process “will be continuously open.”
A significant number of projects are signing up for Binance Labs’ incubation programs. Binance Labs said the Season 6 program received “hundreds” of applications and ultimately selected 12 startups, or about 3% of the applications.
Binance Labs recently expanded its investing activities, supporting the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon and Ethereum are resuming the Renzo and Puffer Finance protocols this year.
Last year, Binance Labs accepted its first outside capital when it closed a $500 million fund. However, the company began returning undeployed capital to Limited Partners. LPs initially invested a total of $150 million in the fund, and Binance Labs returned nearly half of that amount, as The Block reported last November.
