Amazon, Deloitte, Fidelity support IDEO CoLab's free blockchain accelerator program

IDEO’s venture arm IDEO CoLab Ventures announced its partnership with 20 leading organizations and protocols to launch a blockchain accelerator called Startup Studio.

Big household names including Amazon, Deloitte, and Fidelity are a part of the collaboration. On the crypto side, data firms Messari, the Ethereum Foundation, the Stellar Foundation, and NEAR Protocol are among the many companies included.

1/ Excited to announce the launch of @ideocolab’s Startup Studio program for blockchain/crypto startups, in partnership with over 20 leading organizations and protocols.

It’s free for entrepreneurs and startups who participate. Apply here: https://t.co/sySFuYnghz https://t.co/2hPIVsBtcZ
— Ian Lee (@ianjohnlee) July 11, 2019

The new initiative will see all the network of partners host acceleration programs to provide blockchain entrepreneurs and firms the necessary tools and funding, underscoring needs on design to product, testing, brand, hiring, finance, law, engineering, and smart contract development.

According to The Block, Amazon will offer workshops on building and deploying the Amazon Web Service (AWS) infrastructure, Deloitte will cover topics about accounting, tax, and structuring perspective, and Fidelity will help startups explore, test, and partner on compelling new opportunities.

Participating startups can choose on what specific workshop to attend at “no cost,” Ian Lee, Managing Director at IDEO CoLab Ventures, said.

“We believe that the blockchain industry has now reached the point where human-centered design and collaboration are needed to realize its full potential and make the leap from millions of enthusiasts to billions of everyday users,” he said in a press release.

Decentralized exchange protocol 0x, crypto lender Dharma, and crypt derivative exchange dYdX have already attended the program. “We’ve helped them validate/invalidate new product concepts, design product UX/UI, and find their first launch customers.”

Back in May, ethereum development studio ConsenSys also unveiled a blockchain and decentralized application (dApp) kit to guide developers land a job in the burgeoning blockchain space. The kit contains everything an applicant will need, ranging from basic blockchain knowledge to sharding, scalability trilemma, and token standard concepts.