Celo Regional Council Season 1 Funding Request

Governance Governance Proposals
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Proposal Key Aspects

  • Receiver Entity: Celo Governance
  • Status: [DRAFT]
  • Author(s): Rica (@ricaax), Joan (@Joan_DeRB), Brisa (@Brisa), 0xj4an (@0xj4an-work)
  • Type of Request: Funding
    • Intent: Season 1
    • Funding Category: Regional Community Growth
    • Funding Request: 414,450 cUSD + 64,000 CELO

Summary

The Celo Regional Council requests funding for Season 1 operations to serve as a decentralised coordination and growth layer across the Celo ecosystem. Evolving from a loose collective into a structured body, the Council now acts as a strategic layer localising impact, harmonising proposals, and onboarding users and builders through a shared framework.

This proposal consolidates ecosystem funding for all Regional HUBs under a single banner while establishing a governance structure that promotes transparency, alignment, and long-term sustainability.

Season 1 goals:

  • Execute a regional governance model with voting representation from four macro-regions (Africa, Europe, LatAm, Asia)
  • Empower local nodes to activate ecosystem intents (Grow TXs and TVL)
  • Standardise metrics, tooling, and community contribution infrastructure
  • Drive ecosystem growth through events, integrations, and protocol onboarding, always aligned with S1 Intents

Motivation

Over the past seven months, the Council has transitioned from experimentation to execution, moving from regional silos to a networked model of cooperation. This evolution surfaced the need for a clear governance structure and a sustainable flywheel to power long-term growth.

Key insights from Season 0:

  • Fragmented local efforts created duplicated work and coordination gaps
  • High-context contributors need lightweight, supportive governance—not bureaucratic overhead
  • Grassroots wins (e.g. wallet downloads, protocol pilots, txs growth) often lacked visibility or support at the global level

The Regional Council directly addresses these challenges by:

  • Translating global strategy (e.g. Vision 2030, Season Intents) into regional tactics
  • Supporting local nodes to engage real communities, not just run paid activations
  • Embedding promising builders within high-context regions for long-term impact

Specification

At the end of Season 1 we expect to formalize the Regional Hub + Local Node structure. Each macro-region (Africa, Europe, LatAm, Asia) will have a representative with voting rights, ensuring all regions contribute to ecosystem-wide decisions. Local nodes execute region-specific programs, report impact, and co-develop tooling and strategy.

Future Governance Structure

  • 4 Voting Members (1 per macro-region)
  • Open Participation from all regional nodes
  • Internal Governance Models per region (to ensure local voice, shared coordination, transparent reporting)

Metrics & KPIs

The following KPIs reflect the collective goals of all regional hubs together participating in Season 1 of the Celo Regional Council. Each hub has committed to aligned, onchain-impact-driven activities tailored to local realities. For a detailed breakdown per region, please refer to each regional proposal.

Metric Target
Onchain Transactions 50,000+ cumulative transactions across regions
Developers Onboarded 100+ developers via workshops, sprints, and incentive campaigns
Smart Contracts Deployed 50+ contracts deployed by local contributors
GitHub Repositories / Apps Tracked 20+ active projects tracked on KarmaGAP & GitHub
Projects / dApps Launched 25+ deployed dApps or protocol integrations
MCP-Compatible Miniapps 10+ deployed and tracked via KarmaGAP
Wallets Created 500+ wallets activated through events, raffles, and campaigns
TVL Onboarded $50,000+ in DeFi protocols via staking, LPs, or integrations
Merchants Activated 20+ merchants using Celo assets with measurable retention
Contributors & Ambassadors 50+ onboarded, with deploy-to-earn or local coordination roles
Campaigns & Activations 10+ content-led or peer-led campaigns driving measurable TXs
Tracking Infrastructure 100% of activities tracked via KarmaGAP + public dashboards

Current Status

For insights into Season 1’s journey, lessons, and foundational work, as well as broader context and strategic basis, refer to the Celo Regional Council — H1 2025 Report.

Regarding S1, after carefully reviewing all proposals, we added comments and assessed each using the “ChatGPT test” provided by Celo Growth team alongside our own judgment to evaluate alignment with the Intent for Season 1.

Only the proposals that met these criteria have moved forward to the voting phase.

The result is a total approved budget of $433,650 ($414,450 in cUSD + 64,000 in CELO at 0,3 US/Celo rate).

Please note:

  • Celo Philippines, Koh Celo have not been approved. Special thanks to Celo Philippines for their cooperation during the voting process.

  • Celo Mexico was a special case, the Council found that ongoing internal conflicts and unprofessional conduct prevented us from moving forward. These issues must be resolved before future funding discussions.

  • Celo Turkey’s proposal was approved, but with a reduced budget to align with the process we started seven months ago with India and Arabia, establishing a limited initial budget for new regional openings.

This has been a challenging yet constructive process. We’ve all worked hard to bring greater transparency, alignment, and efficiency to this phase.

In the accompanying spreadsheet, you will find:

  1. Season-to-season budget comparisons
  2. Draft 1: including all submitted proposals
  3. Final Draft: only the approved and voted proposals
  4. Budget comparison for Intent 1, including CPG, Stabila, Prezenti, and the Regional Council

We believe this proposal reflects the community’s strong intention to work closely with the Celo Foundation’s goals, strengthen the ecosystem, and bring more professionalism and improved methodologies. Our current proposal is solid and will be publicly defended in the upcoming days.

Thank you again for your trust and support. We believe this final agreement shows a strong commitment to the Intent of Season 1 while maintaining a lean structure focused on key growth and community activities such as Celo Gather in Africa and DevConnect 2025 in LatAm.

Funding Breakdown

Regional Council Operations

  • Core Ops (coordination, reporting, governance): 10,000 cUSD
  • Celo Gather LatAm: 20,000 cUSD
  • Celo Gather Africa: 16,000 cUSD

Hub Budgets

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As illustrated in the chart above, the Regional Council has succeeded in aligning proposals across the ecosystem while reducing or stabilising budgets in nearly all regions. Most proposals experienced budget cuts ranging from 5% to 30%.

Despite these reductions, the Council prioritised retaining key activities and ensuring continuity in high-impact regions, especially those with demonstrated alignment with Season 1 Intents.

This outcome reflects not only a collective commitment to lean and accountable spending, but also an improved shared understanding of how to frame regional work within a global strategy. The Council has shown its ability to make difficult decisions, balance diverse priorities, and uphold the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem.

We believe this is a clear sign of governance maturity and a solid foundation for continued decentralisation.

Team

Region Hub Lead Forum Handle
LatAm @CeLatam Susanne szapelao
LatAm @CeloColombiano Ximena Ximemonclou
Europe @Celoeu Rica ricaax
Europe @CeloTurkiye Barış Parlan bparlan
Africa @CeloAfricaDAO Brisa 0xBrisa
Asia Celoindia Chitty Chitty
Asia @CeloArabia Mustafa CeloArabia
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