This thread provides an update on the progress of Celo Europe H2 2024 | Regional DAO Proposal during Q3 & Q4 (July 1st - December 31st, 2024). It provides insights into what we’ve accomplished across our key focus areas and shares our perspective for regional DAOs in 2025.
Written by @NikoG and @Joan_DeRB
Let’s dive in!
Focus Area 1: Events and Community Development
A. Virtual Celo Gather
We’ve started conceptualizing the online end-of-year Celo Gather. However, after speaking with the Kuneco leads, they articulated a willingness to host a year-end Kuneco like last year. We see clear value in this and believe hosting a virtual Gather would not make sense. Instead, we’ll support the organization and communication around the Year-End Kuneco. The surplus budget from this KPI was utilized to help fund Settlement Day on behalf of cLabs and Celo Foundation. This included event consultancy, production, venue selection, programming, and an after-movie.
B. Support Regional DAOs for ETH Safari & DevCon
We successfully concluded our collaborations with Celo Africa DAO and KohCelo, delivering event support. Below is an overview of the support provided across these key initiatives:
- ETH Safari (Celo Africa DAO): Our contributions included event consultancy, venue curation, programming, keynote coordination, operational support, and the after-movie.
- Celo Gather: Bangkok (KohCelo): We provided support as co-organizers and sponsors, ensuring the event’s success. The event saw over 750 signups and welcomed 200+ attendees, exceeding expectations and fostering meaningful community engagement.
These collaborations fulfilled our KPIs and elevated the visibility and engagement of the Celo ecosystem across multiple regions.
C. Produce 3 Content Pieces
This season, we produced four content pieces centered around ETH Safari and Devcon. When factoring in content from other focus areas, our total output exceeds 20+ pieces, which is beyond the initial KPIs established. However, to avoid duplication, we’ve excluded those from this count. These are the primary content pieces produced and published:
- Celo Gather Aftermovie
- Celo at ETHSafari
- Ocean Cleanup event
- Haraka Finance x Mento Mini-Builder Story
D. Sponsor up to 4 Local Events in Europe
We managed to sponsor two European events this season:
- Hackathon Brunch by Talent Protocol, Celo, and Superchain
- CryptoPlaza Event, organized by Jesús Perez and Alex Puig.
After scoping potential side events in Q4, we identified that the most impactful opportunities lay outside Europe. To maximize our contribution to the ecosystem, we pivoted our strategy and sponsored Celo Gather: Bangkok and Settlement Day. This shift allowed us to:
- Meet our KPIs for event sponsorship.
- Deliver greater impact by supporting high-profile events with global reach.
- Maintain creative control to ensure the quality and relevance of these initiatives for the Celo ecosystem.
This strategic pivot enabled us to use our resources best while amplifying Celo’s global presence.
E. Host 3 Online Workshops
Our workshops this season delivered significant value to the community by connecting participants with industry leaders and experts.
- MiCA Workshop: We brought together policy, law, and startup experts to provide valuable insights into the evolving regulatory landscape.
- Raising Funds for Web3 Workshop: This session featured two VCs and one startup, offering practical advice on fundraising in Europe. Attendees gained direct access to field experts and had the opportunity to ask in-depth questions.
These workshops attracted approximately 100 unique participants from the Celo ecosystem and beyond, engaging developers, community members, and other interested parties.
We are scheduling the final Superchain Workshop for early January. This delay is due to the postponed CEL2 migration and logistical challenges in coordinating with the speakers.
Focus Area 2: Ecosystem Support
A. Create 3 Educational Resources
We’ve released the following high-quality educational resources:
- Analyzing Celo’s Onchain Performance
- CeloEU in Africa: A journey of innovation and growth
- Celo EU x Minipay Hands-on Experience Article
- Celo Regional DAOs: A Retrospective on 2024
We also recorded over 3 hours of interview-based research in Africa with Celo and non-Celo projects, gaining insights into their challenges. However, this was beyond the scope of our original proposal, so we’re exploring how we can leverage this content/research. We are also willing to open-source this content to stakeholders interested in leveraging these resources.
B. Expand Investor Database
Our initial approach to expanding the investor database focused on event-driven lead generation, which yielded different results during the Africa trip due to limited VC presence. In Q4, we pivoted to a data-driven approach, scraping relevant contacts and conducting targeted outreach. However, this strategy also proved unsuccessful.
Moving forward, we will discontinue these efforts and encourage other players to explore different strategies for improving investor engagement and reach. This will allow us to focus our resources on areas where we can have more impact on the ecosystem.
C. Institutional Program Collaborations
In 2024, our focus on building strategic institutional partnerships has shown progress, enhancing Celo’s support network for startups and the ecosystem’s reach. These collaborations are designed to provide resources, funding, and mentorship to Celo-aligned projects, helping drive innovation and sustainable growth.
- Redbeard Ventures: We continue to support their accelerator program, which is now in its final stage. This program has provided guidance and resources to three Celo-based startups, helping them refine their products, build networks, and prepare for successful token launches in 2025.
- Partnership with Tritemius: We finalized a partnership with Tritemius, a Web3 VC firm investing in Europe and Latin America, focusing on RWA, ReFi, public goods, DeFi, and DeSci. Our collaboration has facilitated the identification of 10+ potential startups for investment consideration. Additionally, we connected Tritemius with key Celo stakeholders, such as Prezenti, to ensure ongoing support for selected projects.
- Collaboration with UNDP: Our partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), particularly in Impact Funds, invited us to participate in “Empowering the Future: A Strategic Dialogue on Emerging Technologies and Impact Entrepreneurship in Enlargement Countries.” This event is scheduled for January 21, 2025, at the UN House Brussels and will help strengthen Celo’s positioning in the global impact space.
Tritemius and the UNDP attended Celo Gather: Bangkok, reinforcing these relationships and aligning on shared goals to support impact-driven growth and innovation. These partnerships are pivotal for expanding the ecosystem, supporting startups, and ensuring Celo remains a leader in financial inclusion and decentralized innovation.
Focus Area 3: Content Production and Storytelling
A. CEL2 Launch Video
We have completed all interviews and filming for the CEL2 Launch Video during Devcon. We are in the post-production phase, refining and assembling a concise 2-3 minute video that the Celo Foundation can use for the official CEL2 launch. We anticipate delivering a first draft to stakeholders by mid-January, after which we will finalize the video based on feedback.
B. Builder’s Story: Minipay
We’ve produced a long format Builder’s Story and three Standalone short format Stories with Minipay in Africa. For the three Standalone Short stories you can view here:
We completed the long format Minipay Builder’s Story and premiered it at Celo Gather: Bangkok. Following valuable feedback from various stakeholders, we decided to rework the narrative. The re-edit is now scheduled for January to coincide with Minipay’s official iOS launch, ensuring the story is released at the most impactful time with the most accurate and empowering narrative.
C. Aftermovie reflecting Celo’s involvement in ETH Safari & DevCon
We successfully met our KPIs by producing after movies that captured Celo’s presence and contributions at two major events: ETH Safari and DevCon. These after-movies highlight community engagement, ecosystem growth, and key moments from each event. You can view the completed after-movies below:
D. 8 Videos at Leading Conferences
Throughout this season, we’ve produced 20+ videos (Documentaries, Aftermovies, and event Presentations), exceeding our original KPIs for the Content Production focus area. The continuous quality and volume of our output demonstrate Celo EU’s commitment to producing high-impact content that amplifies Celo’s mission and ecosystem.
Additionally, we have an extra 10+ event presentations and a backlog of 8-10 pieces of raw, unprocessed content. We are open to sharing these assets with any relevant stakeholders who can utilize them to support and promote the Celo ecosystem further. This ensures that our efforts continue to contribute to the greater good and maximize the reach and impact of our content.
Budget & Payment Terms
As outlined in the initial proposal, the Celo Europe budget for this season was $78,000. While we operated with a surplus in Q3, unforeseen expenses in Q4—primarily related to event sponsorships for Celo Gather: Bangkok and Settlement Day—resulted in us going over budget. We closed the season with a small minus, which the team internalized by not paying themselves in December, meaning no third-party debts remain. Had these unforeseen variables not arisen, we would have closed the year with a surplus and potentially returned the remaining budget to the community treasury.
For a complete cost breakdown, please view our Accounting Dashboard here.
Reflection and Outlook for 2025
Season 2 has been productive, and we achieved most of our KPIs. Our focus on events, community development, ecosystem support, and content production allowed us to make meaningful contributions to the Celo network regionally and globally.
Looking back, some key learnings and reflections for the future include:
1. Expanding Collaboration and Inclusion: Celo Europe should open more opportunities for external contributors. Diversifying our talent pool will bring fresh perspectives, new ideas, and more localized engagement, helping to decentralize our operations further.
2. Leadership Transition: At the end of H2, Niko will step back from CeloEU operations and leadership, with Joan stepping into the role. This transition presents an opportunity to redefine roles and responsibilities within the team. This change should be leveraged to bring new leadership and encourage more distributed ownership of tasks and initiatives.
3. Focus on Strategic Content Creation: This remains one of our strongest assets. Continuing to produce high-impact videos, articles, and event coverage will solidify Celo Europe’s role as an ecosystem storyteller. This will be essential as we enter the Impact Era and navigate the CEL2 migration.
4. Strengthening Regional DAO Collaboration: Improved communication and coordination between Regional DAOs will be crucial in 2025. Celo Europe should continue fostering better collaboration, sharing resources, and aligning efforts with other hubs to create a more unified and effective global strategy.
The Future of Regional DAOs
As we conclude this season, it’s clear that Celo Europe’s role has expanded beyond regional boundaries. Our work has increasingly supported Regional DAOs globally, reflecting the need for interconnected growth. To help shape the understanding of Regional DAOs, we’ve analyzed the impacts and insights from the 2024 Regional DAO programs and published them in this thread on the Celo Forum: Celo Regional DAOs: A Retrospective on 2024.
This is our contribution aimed at providing actionable insights, highlighting best practices, and identifying opportunities for improvement. It captures the successes, challenges, and lessons learned, serving as a foundation to build stronger, more effective Regional DAOs in the future.
We envision collaboration, sustainability, and innovation as key pillars for Regional DAOs. By sharing our research, we hope to empower DAOs to refine their strategies, enhance their impact, and align with Celo’s mission. As Celo enters the Impact Era and integrates with the Superchain, Regional DAOs will be essential in driving localized adoption and expanding Celo’s global reach.
Looking ahead, Celo Europe remains committed to driving growth, innovation, and collaboration within the ecosystem. We are excited about what lies ahead in 2025 and look forward to building on the foundation established in the past season, ensuring Celo Europe remains a key player in the network’s growth and success.
Resources