Bitget, the leading cryptocurrency derivatives and copy trading platform, has announced its strategic plans of investing in blockchain startups based in India, under its Blockchain4Youth (B4Y) $10 million Web3-focused project. The initiative kicks off on 6th November and will conclude on 4th December, 2023 at BUIDL for Web3, India’s premier multi-chain summit, organized by Lumos Labs and BuidlersTribe, powered by Bitget. Indian startups will get the opportunity to pitch to Bitget and top VCs within the space during the event as a part of the initiative.
With this program, Bitget aims to identify valuable and promising projects in the crypto space and provide them with comprehensive support, accelerating innovation in emerging technologies. Under the Blockchain4Youth project, Bitget has adopted a 360-degree approach as it plans to invest $10 million through the initiative over the next 5 years.
BUIDL for Web3, aims to gather thousands of developers and founders to battle against the odds. The month long program consists of shortlisting over 100 startups to begin. Amongst which, only the top ten startups will stand to share their pitches with Bitget and renowned VCs such as Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Draper Labs and more.
“India’s resilience and constant advancements towards blockchain and crypto makes it the most wanted place to invest in Asia currently. The talent, the entrepreneurial spirit, it’s everything celebratory and we’re here to empower it. With our Blockchain4Youth, we look forward to accelerating the next big fours of cryptospace,” said Gracy Chen, Managing Director at Bitget.
Previously, through the B4Y Under 30 Virtual Hackathon, Bitget invested in Indian startups which made it to the winnings. This includes Grease Pencil – an AI based script writer, storyboard generator with frames and images for the entire script in seconds, HAIr – AI that helps via job description generation, extract essential keywords and details from both job descriptions and CVs, facial and audio analysis and data-driven candidate selection for HR and Derma360 – an AI enabled Dermatological app that makes analyzing skin conditions user-friendly and effortless.
The startup pitch program is open to all developers, entrepreneurs and founders based in India. The eligibility criteria to participate are as follows:-
- The project should display a working minimal-viable product, with a real world use case.
- Blockchain enthusiasts, developers and entrepreneurs are welcomed to showcase their products around DeFi, GameFi, Metaverse, NFTs, Tokenized ecosystems, Blockchain-AI solutions and more.
- Projects should hold multiple layers of security functionalities and should be open for auditing
The rising interest of India’s youth into building blockchain based application bolsters the nation as one of the top hubs for development and talent. A recent study by Bitget Academy, Millennials and Gen Z representatives are the driving forces behind the development of a crypto’s future, with the former comprising 46% of crypto enthusiasts. With the launch of Bitget’s new initiative into the Indian market, the company aims to accelerate the on-going crypto adoption wave in the region .
“We have witnessed massive growth and retention within the crypto sector in India. The country has emerged as one of the global web3 leaders as it garners a rising interest in investments, from major web3 players worldwide. With the opportunity and exposure provided through Bitget’s program, Indian web3 startups have an exceptional opportunity to kickoff their journey and create sustainable web3 innovation.”, added Kaavya Prasad, Founder, Lumos Labs.
