In a bid to create a blockchain version of the popular Y Combinator framework, ARC—an NFT-gated community of over 850 members—raised $4.5 million, the group announced on Tuesday.
“We spent over two years curating a global powerhouse of connections, expertise, developers, creators, and influencers to create a comprehensive ecosystem that helps ambitious Web2 brands and Web3 projects in Asia succeed,” ARC CEO and cofounder Elroy Cheo said in a statement.
Pitched as the “Y Combinator of the Web3 world,” the Singapore-based ARC said it will use the same model for project incubation, go-to-market capabilities, and funding.
Y Combinator is a long-running San Francisco-based startup accelerator that provides funding, mentorship, and resources to early-stage companies. Y Combinator helped launch companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe. OpenAI’s Sam Altman was President of Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019.
The new capital, ARC said, will go towards boosting ARC’s ecosystem by providing dedicated support for new Web3 projects, forming strategic partnerships to accelerate concept development and testing, and streamlining the process from concept to market launch.
Calling it “4.5 million reasons to be part of the ARC ecosystem,” Cheo said it was important to fundraise with the community.
“It’s not just about having a great concept,” Cheo said. “We bet on people and assemble the right teams behind it. Unlike many other ecosystems, projects born in ARC have the power of a whole global community backing it.”
He calling the strategy a new standard for how projects and new ventures should be birthed.
According to ARC, this approach of social coordination puts access to capital, launch capabilities, and creators and developers for Web3 projects all on one platform.
“This demonstrates the sheer ability of the ARC community to get behind a single-minded goal and the tremendous commitment of the community to make our projects succeed,” Cheo added. “The fundraise is proof that the ARC ecosystem works.”
According to ARC, the $4.5 million was raised by 163 of its members, led by the Venture Capital firm Arcane Group. Participants include Adrian Lai (The Newman Group), Arthur Cheong (Defiance Capital), Cecilia Lee, Germaine Jiang (Mask Network), and Chris Sirise (LiquidX Studio).
ARC was founded in 2022 by Cheo and Singapore-based business leader Kiat Lim.