YZi Labs has expanded its EASY Residency into a year-round, rolling program, with permanent hubs in New York and the SF Bay Area and three global Demo Days in 2026, starting at TOKEN2049 Dubai.

YZi Labs, an investment firm focused on Web3, AI, and biotechnology, has announced that its flagship accelerator, EASY Residency, is shifting from a cohort-based model to an always-on, year-round residency with rolling applications starting from Season 3. Instead of fixed batches and temporary hubs, founders can now apply and interview at any time, and YZi Labs will maintain permanent builder hubs in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area, where its investors and operators are present year-round to support teams. Founders in Asia also have the option to spend time at Network School in Forest City, an emerging tech community YZi Labs highlights as an additional environment for focused building. Season 3 of EASY Residency will continue targeting early-stage teams in Web3, AI, and biotech, with particular interest in areas such as on-chain trading markets, stablecoins, and enterprise AI agents. The program offers startups up to $500,000 in funding, structured as a $150,000 SAFE for 5% equity plus an additional $350,000 on an uncapped SAFE, alongside office space, housing stipends, and infrastructure support from partners like Amazon Web Services. To connect teams with capital and partners globally, YZi Labs is introducing three Demo Days in 2026—scheduled for April, August, and December—with the first to be held at TOKEN2049 Dubai, giving participating projects early-stage exposure to an international investor base; previous Demo Days have been hosted at venues such as the New York Stock Exchange and Binance Blockchain Week. This evolution positions EASY Residency as a continuous incubation engine rather than a traditional batch accelerator, aligning with what YZi Labs describes as the faster market cycles of 2026 and the need for more flexible entry points for founders. By anchoring long-term hubs in two of the United States’ most active innovation centers and tying its calendar to major global crypto and tech events, the program is aiming to become a standing interface between early-stage founders and top investors, operators, and mentors—including high-profile figures from prior seasons such as Binance co-founders Changpeng Zhao and He Yi and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

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