Velocity Labs and Partners Launch DeFi Builders Program to Accelerate DeFi Innovation on Polkadot Hub

Velocity Labs, in collaboration with Web3 Foundation, Parity Technologies, Wave Digital, Scytale Digital, Hypernative and other leading Polkadot ecosystem partners, announces the launch of the DeFi Builders Program, a new initiative designed to attract, support, and scale the next generation of decentralized finance applications on Polkadot Hub, the EVM-compatible chain set to launch in late Q4.

The DeFi Builders Program is built to meet developers where they are, whether they’re entering the space with polished products or simply have innovative ideas ready to be tested and refined. More than just another launchpad, the program offers a comprehensive support system for teams ready to explore new DeFi primitives and experiment with entirely new models of financial coordination.

“At its core, this is about creating space for real innovation, not just copying and pasting the last cycle’s ideas onto a new chain,” shared Nicolas Arevalo, co-founder at Velocity Labs. “We want teams to feel confident experimenting, iterating, and shipping new DeFi concepts that take full advantage of Polkadot Hub’s scalability, interoperability, and composability from day one.”

The 12-week program takes projects from concept to launch, starting with onboarding and network access (weeks 1-2), followed by product building with expert mentorship (weeks 3-8). Teams then prepare for go-to-market, strategy, and fundraising (weeks 9-11), before showcasing to investors at a Virtual Demo Day (week 12).

The program offers a broad and flexible set of benefits for participating teams, including:

• Funding & Grants: Access to strategic grants to kick-start development, with the potential for additional KPI-based funding (i.e. TVL, volume, user growth) from the Polkadot Treasury and seed investments from VC partners.
• Technical & Product Support: Access to technical mentorship from Polkadot core developers, office hours with Velocity Labs, guidance on tokenomics, product design, scaling strategies, and architecture reviews.
• Liquidity Bootstrapping: Programs to address the cold-start problem common to DeFi launches, including subsidized yield farming, fee rebates, and institutional liquidity support from partners like Wave Digital and Scytale.
• Hiring & Team Building: Ecosystem-supported recruiting, stipends or grants for key early hires, and advice on team scaling to ensure sustainable long-term growth.
• Security Resources: Subsidized smart contract audits, partnerships with bug bounty platforms, connections to the Polkadot Assurance Legion, and protocol specific Hypernative monitoring to help safeguard protocols from day one.
• Visibility & Community Access: Dedicated marketing and PR support, conference exposure, strategic AMAs, and promotional campaigns across official Polkadot channels.
• Education & Ecosystem Onboarding: Developer bootcamps, hackathons, and scholarships through the Polkadot Blockchain Academy to upskill teams building on Polkadot Hub.

Applications are now being accepted and the program is actively seeking teams working across the entire DeFi stack, including lending markets, DEXs, perpetual protocols, yield platforms, real-world asset tokenization, cross-chain infrastructure, payment rails, and onboarding solutions. While polished products are welcome, the program also embraces teams at earlier stages, providing a safe environment to iterate, experiment, and validate ideas before scaling.

"The DeFi Builders Program embodies exactly what the Web3 Foundation champions: giving innovative teams the runway to experiment fearlessly on Polkadot and translate breakthrough ideas into the next generation of open, interoperable finance," said Angie Darrow, Chief Marketing Officer and interim CECO at Web3 Foundation.

The first cohort will be limited to 5 teams only, anyone interested in participating is encouraged to visit velocitylabs.org/defibuildersprogram for more information and to submit their proposals for inclusion in the program. Applications are open from 3 September until 3 October 2025.

About Velocity Labs

Velocity Labs is a core contributor to Polkadot, dedicated to transforming it into the premier platform for DeFi development in Web3. As strategic partners, we empower builders and infrastructure providers with comprehensive support across business development, go-to-market strategy, engineering support, and product strategy.