Cosmos Hub's Growth DAO

We will employ three methods

1. Passive open grants: applicants find an idea they have an interest in and submit their applications. Please note that the categories listed above are the ones the ATOM Accelerator will be focusing on but they are not exhaustive
2. Outreach based grants where the ATOM Accelerator proactively seeks out to fund specific initiatives and encourages specific individual or teams to apply for a grant
3. RFPs. In a few instances, the ATOM Accelerator will manifest its interest in projects its Reviewer Committee deems strategic for ATOM and will be publishing more detailed guidelines on its functional and technical needs. Multiple teams are encouraged to participate and submit their application.

We fund projects that align with our investment thesis, including those launching with Interchain Security, projects within the Cosmos ecosystem that provide value accrual to ATOM, and high ROI Web3 projects across any ecosystem. You don’t have to be a Cosmos project, nor do you need to use ATOM as Gas.

Learn more about our investment thesis here.

In return for our capital (as part of the Ventures program), we seek equity, tokens or warrants in your startup, ensuring that our success is closely aligned with the growth and success of your project.

Technically, yes—you can apply for funding through more than one of our funding programs. However, the scope of the funding and arrangements will have to be different.

For example, you are developing a new Cosmos SDK module that will add a specific functionality to the Cosmos Hub. Assuming you meet the requirements of the different funding programs and the approval thresholds, you could:

• Get funding via our Regular Grants program to build out the module and integrate it to the Cosmos Hub
• Get funding via Quadratic Grants, once you have completed the above, and have now released the module for any other Cosmos SDK chain to use.
• Get funding via our Ventures Program, once you decide to apply some monetization strategy and wish to further develop the module and productize it

This is just an illustrative example of how a project could be eligible for multiple funding programs. It does not mean that you will definitely be eligible, nor guarantee that your applications will be approved.

All the Contributors at AADAO hold themselves to a high level of conduct, especially when acting as stewards of the Cosmos Hub. In the spirit of transparency, you can view the internal policy that we use to ensure compliance here.

We assess applications using a rating sheet to pre-screen them.  Two members of our Grant Committee team complete the pre-screening task, chosen by their expertise in the grant category you applied for.

A total of 16 points is possible, and an average grade of 13.5 or higher from the two reviewers is the threshold needed for an application to move on to the interview stage.

The rating criteria can be read here.

The Oversight Committee is effectively independent of the Atom Accelerator DAO’s “executive” teams. It conducts random spot checks on grant-funded projects to ensure compliance with terms and monitors the performance of the Grant Committee and other AADAO committees.

Specifically, the Oversight Committee’s role is to:

1. Provide internal controls of the ATOM Accelerator DAO such as expenditure controls, monitoring of conflicts of interest as well as publishing of transparency reports.
2. Oversight & accountability of grant recipients through follow-ups on milestones and deliverables
3. Interface with the ATOM community at large to inform of the latest developments.

Enshrined in our Internal Protocols is to have one Oversight member directly elected by Cosmos Hub governance onchain – thus providing direct community oversight into our operations. For a list of current members of the Oversight Committee, see our Team page.