Prezenti: 2024 Retrospective
Introduction
In 2024, Prezenti advanced its mission to empower innovative builders within the Celo ecosystem. This was a pivotal year. We’ve strengthened our collaboration with ecosystem stakeholders and released our new website at http://prezenti.xyz, positioning ourselves as the cornerstone of a builder’s journey within the Celo ecosystem. Let’s celebrate our achievements while preparing for a future of greater impact in 2025!
History
Prezenti’s journey can be broken into three distinct stages:
Analysis (H2 2022 – 2023 | 1.5 years | Open Funding Rounds)
During this phase, we established ourselves within the ecosystem, gaining critical insights into grant operations, team dynamics, and stakeholder needs. Despite a challenging bear market, we supported capable teams (such as DappLooker, BitGifty, Hurupay), laying the groundwork for a lean, impactful grants program. Some of these insights include: the administrative burden of milestone based reporting, dynamic treasury management in the networks native token(CELO), legal and operational setup, sizing needs for the various stage of projects, geographical needs and interests in the Celo ecosystem at large.
Refinement (2024 | 1 year | Open Funding Rounds for H1 + 2 Funding Rounds)
The Refinement Stage focused on strategic alignment, branding updates, and enhanced operational processes. The year also saw increased collaboration with ecosystem stakeholders (Celo Foundation, Celo Camp, Celo PG, Africa DAO, cLATAM) and the introduction of structured funding pools in rounds. As the crypto winter thawed with spring Prezenti received a facelift to to attract the best and brightest teams and this needed a clear landing page and calls to action to showcase the grants available and the funding process.
Fusion (2025 and Beyond)
Looking ahead, Prezenti aims to help seamlessly integrate our current Celo funding programs within the Ethereum and Optimism ecosystems. Prezenti, its team and partners are uniquely positioned with a perspective only years of context and iteration could provide. We will continue to serve as a cornerstone of the ecosystem, driving growth by delivering tailored funding solutions that meet teams where they are and/or guide them toward success through our structured pools pathway.
Our Value and Insights
Our perspective: Whilst Celo is positioning itself as a stablecoin powerhouse with the successful launch of Mento, additional stablecoins in 2024 by the wildly successful MiniPay wallet and is targeting communities in East Africa. Prezenti is providing an essential funding source covering all stages of the product lifecycle for prospective contributors that may or may not fit into the fore mentioned category
Ecosystem Trends: Our role allows us to anticipate trends and shifts across the ecosystem.
Mission Alignment: We actively connect builders, aligning with Celo’s vision to foster impactful change.
De-Risking Investments: By identifying synergies and early-stage opportunities, we reduce risks for downstream funders.
Due Diligence: Every application evaluation gives us insights into emerging talent and innovation and adds to our holistic overview of the Celo builder landscape. This in turn allows us to effectively help position promising projects and people into their unique spot to lift the entire ecosystem.
About Prezenti
Prezenti is a Web3 grant program dedicated to fostering grassroots projects within the Celo Ecosystem.
- Established: Mid-2022
- Funding Source: Celo Community Fund
- Core Philosophy: Empowering sustainability and accessibility through community-driven grants
- Team: Expert-led by Celo community members with expanding global expertise
Our Offerings
Prezenti supports projects through structured grant pools:
- Mini Pool ($2,000): Early experimentation
- Pilot Pool ($10,000): Prototyping and feasibility
- Growth Pool ($25,000): Scaling and development
Global Reach
We’ve observed a broader geographical spread of applications this year:
| Region | Applications (%) |
|---|---|
| Africa | 53% |
| Asia | 16% |
| Europe | 14% |
| LATAM | 12% |
| North America | 5% |
| Oceania | 0% |
Grant Metrics (2022–2024)
Summary View
| Metric | 2022–2023 | 2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grants Received | 141 | 266 | 407 |
| Grants Awarded | 43 | 42 | 85 |
| Total Granted | $919,670 | $502K | $1.42M |
Detailed View
| Metric | 2022–2023 | 2024 | 2024 (Apricot) | 2024 (Mint) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants Received | 141 | 76 | 95 | 95 | 407 |
| Grants Awarded | 43 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 84 |
| Total Granted | $919,670 | $210K | $160K | $132K | $1.42M |
Grantee Feedback
- “The funds were helpful, but more importantly, it validated and sort of whitelisted Finna in the Celo ecosystem.” — Finna Protocol
- “Prezenti could do more if startups were connected with VCs post-milestone completion to access further funding.” — Hurupay
- “Prezenti is pivotal in enabling projects to launch and grow. Keep up the great work!” — Ubeswap
- “Prezenti is among the best grant programs in crypto.” — BRL Stablecoin Initiative
Impact Statistics
- 95% of grantees are still working on their products post-grant.
- 66% used the grant to secure additional funding opportunities.
- 90% would reapply to Prezenti.
Metrics come from a combination of numbers in our internal CRM and Grantee feedback which, we plan to collect yearly.
Refinement Stage (2024)
The Refinement Stage in 2024 marked a period of major upgrades across the board.
Strategic Refinement
- Structured Grant Rounds: Transitioned to quarterly funding rounds for greater predictability and impact evaluation.
- Three Dedicated Funding Pools.
Updated Branding and Tools
- Launched a refreshed brand identity to reflect professionalism and increase clarity and usability for the applicant and past alumni
- tools dUtilised tools developed by web3 communities like Charmverse in 2024.
- Increased media presence across the Celo forum, X (Twitter) and Farcaster
Ecosystem Collaboration
- Strengthened relationships with ecosystem stakeholders like Celo PG, cLATAM, Africa DAO, and Celo Camp where appropriate, enabling applicants to be more holistically supported.
Refinement Metrics
- 41 grants awarded in 2024, with $502,000 cUSD disbursed.
- 66% of grantees secured additional funding post-grant.
Our Future
Expanded Grant Pools
Introducing a fourth grant category to our quarterly rounds:
Scale Pool ($50,000) Planned for 2025, quarterly one-off grants for larger-scale initiatives.
Global Collaboration
- Continue to strengthen partnerships with Celo PG, Celo Camp, CLATAM, Africa DAO and others, by including additional stakeholders in our review and due diligence process.
- Collaborate with VC funds (to begin with Verda Ventures and 0XLabs) to connect promising grantees with downstream investment opportunities.
Cohesive & Integral Service within the Celo Ecosystem
Expanded Reviewer Team
We believe it is essential now to decentralize aspects of Prezenti to incorporate flourishing initiatives within the Celo ecosystem to provide fresh, differentiated eyes on applications. With this, we have put the pieces in place to welcome 2 new review contributors:
- Cristóbal Pereira Garretón (cLATAM Lead) joined as a reviewer for Mint 2024, with plans for 2025, pending funding.
- Ronald Nzioki (Celo Africa DAO Program Manager) will join the review team in 2025, pending funding.
Summary
Prezenti’s 2024 journey highlights our commitment to polishing our brand, increasing our cohesiveness with other stakeholders, creating a framework for projects to find their place and evolving our operations for greater impact. With a roadmap for scaling in 2025, we remain dedicated to empowering builders within the Celo ecosystem and beyond.
Stay tuned! We will shortly have another post about funding Prezenti in 2025
For more details, visit: prezenti.xyz
Grant program history and information: charmverse.prezenti.xyz
See our past alumni here: Funded Projects