Two prestigious American schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, have joined forces to launch a Web3 startup accelerator aimed at supporting early-stage founders affiliated with the two universities.
According to The Block, the “MIT x Harvard Blockchain Accelerator” is a non-dilutive program, meaning it will not hold any equity in the accelerated startups and has no plans for short-term investment or funding. Instead, the focus will be on providing pure guidance.
The core contributors and founding mentors of the accelerator are alumni of both universities and include Tieshun Roquerre, founder of NFT marketplace Blur and Ethereum Layer 2 solution Blast (also known as “Pacman”); Kenny Li, co-founder of Layer2 Manta Network; Keone Hon and Eunice Giarta, co-founders of Layer 1 blockchain Monad Labs; and Mirza Uddin, business development lead at Layer 1 blockchain Injective Labs.
The accelerator’s mentor lineup will also include members from cryptocurrency companies such as a16z, Avalanche, Dragonfly, Galaxy Digital, Nascent, and Polygon. Due to company policies, the exact identities of these mentors cannot be disclosed.
In recent years, Stanford University students and alumni have also established a similar blockchain accelerator called the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator.
The first cohort of the MIT x Harvard Blockchain Accelerator is set to launch in April and conclude in June.