Inspira Labs, Yellow, and Cicada recently announced 10X Founders Demo Day v2.0, the second edition of the structured pitch event the three companies co-host for Web3 founders. Sonic, the EVM Layer-1 blockchain, joins as anchor partner, and a wider roster of co-hosts, including Injective, Cointelegraph Accelerator, Galxe, Cryptic, Hacken, 1inch, and Atlas, backed by CMC, and they are backing a prize pool of more than $150,000 for the founders who take the stage on August 25.

10X Founders Demo Day puts a small group of pre-vetted Web3 founders in front of a judge panel made up of active investors and infrastructure operators, aiming to turn a single pitch slot into real follow-up conversations. Founders go through a multi-stage screening process before reaching Demo Day, ensuring only investment-ready teams with working products and measurable traction pitch to the judging panel.

Three Hosts Behind the Stage

What sets v2.0 apart from a typical demo day is who is actually running it. Inspira Labs brings the accelerator and founder support experience through its 10X Founders program, Yellow contributes the infrastructure perspective as a builder of decentralized clearing and settlement technology and Cicada adds market-making expertise that helps projects navigate liquidity and token launches. Together, the three hosts cover a fuller slice of what an early-stage Web3 founder actually needs than any one of them could offer alone, which is a big part of why the event has grown from its first edition into a three-way partnership for round two.

Seven Co-Hosts, Each Solving a Different Problem

The co-host roster brings together the infrastructure, resources and support founders need to move from idea to launch. Injective is contributing $20K in grant support for winning teams, Cointelegraph Accelerator adds $10K in media credits to amplify promising projects, Hacken provides $15K in audit credits to strengthen security, Atlas, backed by CoinMarketCap, contributes $5K in Atlas Oracle services, 1inch supports builders with $5K worth of API Custom Plan usage, Cryptic brings a $5K marketing and growth package and Galxe provides $6K in Essentials Plus packages to help projects build and engage their communities.

$150,000+ and Why Founders Are Fighting for a Seat

The prize pool is the number that gets attention, but the reason it’s worth chasing is what comes attached to it. It’s capital backed by hosts and co-hosts who each bring something a growing Web3 project actually needs. What makes it worth fighting for is who is behind it. A founder who places at Demo Day is not just cashing a check; they are walking away with a direct line to a market maker who understands what it takes to get a token trading, an infrastructure partner who knows what breaks when a protocol scales, and an anchor blockchain partner with its own ecosystem to plug straight into. The judges deciding where the prize pool goes aren’t there to hand out feedback and disappear. Every seat on the panel belongs to someone who deploys capital or runs infrastructure for a living, so the founders who make it onto the agenda leave with more than notes and a placement. They leave with relationships that tend to outlast the event itself.

Applications for Web3 founders interested in pitching at Demo Day v2.0 are open at luma. Founders can expect to submit a short overview of their product, team, and traction, with the judging panel reviewing applications ahead of the event to confirm the final lineup.

About Inspira Labs

Inspira Labs is a venture studio and accelerator, helping early-stage founders go from idea to launch. With 15+ portfolio companies, 200+ VC partners, $60M+ raised for founders, it provides fundraising, go-to-market, ecosystem and product support to help startups scale.

About Yellow

Yellow is an infrastructure project built around decentralized clearing and settlement for digital asset trading. It operates as a Layer-3 clearing and settlement infrastructure on top of existing blockchains, helping businesses and exchanges move digital assets across chains without a centralized intermediary.

About Cicada

Cicada is a crypto trading firm, spanning market making, OTC and DeFi liquidity provision. They manage $100M+ in AUM and serving 60+ clients across CEX and DEX markets. From TGE listing support to structured liquidity deals, Cicada helps projects build strong, retail-attractive markets.