Singapore, February 17th: Ocean Protocol Foundation (OPF), initiator and creator of the open-source decentralized data exchange protocol to unlock data for AI and business innovation, announces $2 Million in funding for Shipyard in 2022. This grants program aims to fund entrepreneurs to build open-source Web3 solutions on Ocean Protocol that will bring valuable data to Ocean-powered marketplaces, advance technical integrations with AI & crypto applications, and develop data sharing related services. Shipyard is complementary to OceanDAO which is a bottom-up grants program.
Eligible projects must make use of Ocean technology and/or OCEAN token and be open source, have experienced teams, working code, a clear use case and/or deployment potential, and contribute towards a direct impact on the adoption and scaling of the Ocean ecosystem.
Applications are reviewed and approved by members of the Ocean Protocol core team. The most important indicators evaluated in the selection process are clear milestones and deliverables, project technology, business models, market validation and alignment with Ocean’s core mission and values. The grants program can be accessed throughout the year and the amounts will vary depending on the project’s potential.
Razvan Olteanu, COO at Ocean Protocol, said:
“In 2022, our focus is on increasing the adoption of Ocean technology and Shipyard is an important tool in this direction. We are looking for a variety of solutions and Web3 applications that have a clear usability case for Ocean stack or OCEAN token - and we are here to support them with financing and expertise so they become mature and sustainable products. We look forward to backing many interesting projects and building a new data economy together.”
Sheridan Johns, Enterprise Lead at Ocean Protocol, added:
“Ocean Protocol Foundation is proud to support innovative projects at the forefront of building the open data economy and Ocean Shipyard is designed to help these projects succeed. I am excited about the opportunity to work together with such highly skilled and motivated teams.”
Ocean Shipyard is a complementary funding layer to OceanDAO - the community-funded grants system. Whereas OceanDAO has a bottom-up approach with readily investable funds led and voted on by the Ocean community, Ocean Shipyard has a top-down approach in which OPF curates the proposals that are seen as being of particular strategic value for the future development of Ocean Protocol that require delivery according to specific milestones. Compared to OceanDAO, Shipyard projects are given more high-touch technical support, and business development guidance including referrals to potential partners. Both OceanDAO and Shipyard offer joint marketing opportunities. Grant payments are contingent on the successful delivery of project milestones within a stipulated time frame and will be made in OCEAN tokens.
Launched in 2020, the first edition of Shipyard received over 60 applications from projects keen to build on Ocean Protocol. Previous Shipyard grant recipients include DataUnion.app, Swash, and TransportGenie, each team exploring different approaches to data monetization.
Interested projects should email their proposals to shipyard@oceanprotocol.com. For more information, access the dedicated presentation.
—
#About Ocean Protocol
Ocean Protocol is a decentralized data exchange platform spearheading the movement to unlock a new Data Economy, break down data silos, and open access to quality data. Ocean’s intuitive marketplace technology allows data to be published, discovered, and consumed in a secure, privacy-preserving manner. By giving power back to data owners, Ocean resolves the tradeoff between using private data and its public exposure