Today we are excited to announce that we have teamed up with the Co-Founder of Ethereum and Founder of Decentral, Anthony Di Iorio, to launch our first-ever “Blockchain Founder Syndicate” program in Toronto. News of the launch was recently announced on BetaKit in an article by Jessica Galang.
The Blockchain Founder Syndicate aims to inspire and support early-stage blockchain entrepreneurs in the Toronto Founder Institute by providing:
- Feedback and Mentorship from Over 20 top Blockchain Experts
- A Local and Global Support Network of Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Advisors
- Over $2M in Partner Deals and Resources (including a "fast-track" to the Techstars Blockchain Program)
- Several "Decentral Fellowships" Awarded to the Top Program Applicants, allowing them to participate in the program for free
If you are interested in building a blockchain company in Toronto, apply to the Blockchain Founder Syndicate today.
The Blockchain Founder Syndicate has been designed in partnership with Decentral, a Toronto-based innovation hub for disruptive and decentralized technologies. The goal of the program is to help launch more than 20 promising companies that leverage the blockchain by 2019, and help further establish Toronto as a centre for blockchain innovation.
Decentralized technologies will lead to a new era of value, but many blockchain entrepreneurs lack the resources they need to grow and thrive,” said Anthony Di Iorio, Co-founder of Ethereum, and Founder and CEO of Jaxx and Decentral. “The Blockchain Founder Syndicate empowers and unites the next wave of blockchain businesses to seize the power of decentralized technologies.
To celebrate this new program, the Toronto Founder Institute will host several free blockchain events in partnership with Fasken LLP and GMP Capital over the next few weeks:
- How to Start a Blockchain Startup: Meet the Ecosystem Leaders on Thursday, September 20th at Fasken LLP (333 Bay Street, Suite 2400, Toronto)
- Startup Funding with Blockchain on Wednesday, October 3rd at Fasken LLP (333 Bay Street, Suite 2400, Toronto)
Toronto has been recognized worldwide as a global centre for cryptocurrency development and blockchain technologies, and is home to many world-class companies including Decentral, Coinsquare, Polymath and many more,” says John Tory, Mayor of Toronto. “It is only fitting that Founder Institute selected Toronto to be the first city in the world to launch a vertical pre-accelerator program focused on blockchain technology.
The Toronto Founder Institute was launched in 2014 by Sunil Sharma, Managing Director of Techstars Toronto, and has graduated over 130 new startups since it began operations, including Vacation Fund, Find BoB, Parlay, Jauntin, Makeup for Melanin Girls and many more. The Blockchain Founder Syndicate will be co-lead by Kyle Collier, Founder of Phaze.io, and Ryan Micheletti, Director of Global Operations for the Founder Institute. The Blockchain Founder Syndicate will run alongside the standard Toronto Fall 2018 Founder Institute cohort and will provide dedicated resources to the Blockchain Founders in the program.
In addition to Decentral, several other top organizations are helping support blockchain Founders in the program, including Fasken LLP and GMP Capital.
As Canada’s top law firm for Blockchain Founders, we are ecstatic to support the Blockchain Founder Syndicate and help create some of the leading Blockchain companies in Canada,” says Jeff Dennis, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, at Fasken LLP
GMP Securities is proud to partner with the Blockchain Founders Syndicate to support entrepreneurs and technologists from idea generation to early stage companies to large publicly-listed companies,” says Harris Fricker, CEO of GMP Capital. “GMP Securities has been on the front lines of technology-driven disintermediation — both as disrupter and disruptee — since its inception in 1995. GMP Securities believes the algorithm for wealth creation is rooted in disruption and blockchain, with its revolutionary distributed ledger technology, will be the ultimate disrupter.
The Decentral team is a critical node in the network of companies using decentralized technologies to create economic opportunity, to empower individuals worldwide with financial liberty and to build the trustless, censorship-resistant Internet of the future. Decentral is home to Canada’s first two-way Bitcoin ATM and host to community-driven events in the domains of fintech and decentralized technologies, like blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Savvy entrepreneurs are already using blockchain to tackle things like identity, international payments and more,” says Adeo Ressi, Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute. “Through this program, we want to encourage startups with big visions to use the technology on some of the world’s biggest problems.
Learn more about the Blockchain Founder Syndicate at http://fi.co/join/blockchain.
