Cardano Builders Begin Draper Genesis Residency in Silicon Valley

Cardano founders have begun the Genesis Pre-Accelerator at Draper University in San Mateo, California. Starting August 17, participating teams are spending four weeks working on products, customer validation and business models before a final Pitch Day with investors.

The cohort spans institutional DeFi, payments, compliance, enterprise infrastructure and AI, with BETTER web3 founder Joseph Escobar and Web3 Bounties founder Peter Bui among the builders now working from Silicon Valley.

Cardano Startups Enter the Genesis Program

Genesis is an in-person pre-accelerator for early-stage technical teams building on Cardano. Participants live at Draper University while working with founders, operators and investors on product validation, fundraising and go-to-market preparation.

Selected companies can receive up to $20,000 in investment for a target of approximately 2% equity. Participation does not automatically result in funding, with Draper University using the four-week program as a diligence period before final investment decisions.

The residency concludes with a dedicated Pitch Day where teams can present to angel investors and early-stage venture capital firms.

Genesis sits inside the broader investment structure connecting Cardano companies with the Draper network.

In April, Cardano and Draper Dragon announced the initial phase of the Orion Fund, an ecosystem investment initiative targeting at least $80 million. Draper Dragon manages the fund, the Cardano Foundation serves as constitutional administrator, and Draper University acts as the acceleration partner responsible for developing its startup pipeline.

The structure is designed to support Cardano-native and Cardano-integrated companies while connecting selected founders with professional venture investment and the wider Draper network.

BETTER web3, Web3 Bounties and the Genesis Cohort

BETTER web3, led by Joseph Escobar, is developing a customer acquisition platform for blockchain companies.

Rather than building blockchain infrastructure itself, BETTER addresses a problem that appears after a product is launched: finding users and converting attention into measurable growth. Escobar entered Genesis with years of experience working across the Cardano community and with ecosystem projects.

The residency gives BETTER an environment to test its customer profile, positioning and commercial model alongside other founders working through the same early-stage challenges.

Peter Bui, known across the Cardano community as Astroboy and through Learn Cardano, joined Genesis with Web3 Bounties.

The platform is an on-chain marketplace that connects projects offering paid work with contributors able to complete it. Bounties are funded through Cardano-based escrow, allowing contributors to verify that rewards exist before work begins and enabling payments to be released under predefined conditions.

Web3 Bounties already has a working product, with development, design, content and community tasks supported through its marketplace.

The broader Genesis cohort extends across several other areas of the Cardano ecosystem.

Harmonic Laboratories, represented by Michele Nuzzi, combines developer infrastructure with work around GravityDEX and institutional DeFi.

Lava is developing L-ADA, designed to allow staked ADA to remain productive while being deployed as collateral, liquidity or part of other DeFi strategies. Draper University said the project entered Genesis with an audited, mainnet-ready product and launch partners already identified.

Ospree, founded by Javier Tamashiro, is building compliance infrastructure for companies moving value across fiat, stablecoin and digital-asset rails, including AML, Travel Rule and licensing requirements.

ChatterPay, led by Tomas Di Mauro, is developing stablecoin payments inside WhatsApp. Its Genesis profile identifies Cardano native assets, predictable fees and the eUTXO model as potential infrastructure for high-frequency digital payments.

Other participants include RiverArk in merchant payments, Hito in wallet and digital trust infrastructure, ADApose Labs with automated non-custodial DeFi vaults, an Agent-to-Agent project exploring payments between AI agents, Rare Network with its ENVNT events platform, Volta Nexos with Web3 productivity software, and Tata iMali with blockchain-based loyalty infrastructure.

The cohort therefore places Cardano infrastructure alongside products targeting merchants, financial institutions, businesses, AI systems and users who may never interact directly with blockchain tooling.

From Cardano Products to Investable Companies

The first days in San Mateo have shifted the participating teams from applications and selection into direct work on customers, products and fundraising.

Bui’s updates from the residency have described pitch development, customer interviews, user testing and prototyping, as well as feedback on how Web3 Bounties defines its customer and communicates the problem it is solving.

That work matches the structure Draper University established for Genesis. Technical development remains part of the program, but founders are also expected to test demand, refine positioning and build a commercial case around their products.

The Orion Fund established an investment vehicle for companies building around Cardano. Genesis is now feeding early-stage businesses into that pipeline and testing how they perform under a Silicon Valley accelerator model.

The process does not end with Genesis. Draper University has also created Apex, a longer growth accelerator for investor-ready companies working across areas including real-world assets, institutional DeFi and enterprise solutions.

For BETTER web3, Web3 Bounties and the other Genesis teams, the four weeks in San Mateo add a different benchmark to technical delivery. Their products are now being tested against identifiable customers, viable business models and the expectations of investors who can fund the next stage of growth.