What is Necto Labs?
An open-source innovation lab driven by R&D, venture funding and strategic collaborations to build a better web for all.
Led by Mysterium Network, this open collective brings together builders, projects and organisations who are making the internet borderless and accessible by default.
The Necto Labs fund will support the development of a new generation of tools and infrastructure that further humanity’s goals of digital rights, free access to information and freedom of expression.
While Mysterium provides a robust node network and infrastructure for the re-imagination of the web, we realise we can’t do this alone. We have partnered with champions who are tackling these challenges on the ground, to identify key needs and opportunities in various communities.
Seed Program
Get the capital you need to bring your idea to life.
Entrepreneurship and development are two separate worlds.
The Necto Labs seed program is not just funding innovation, but setting up teams for long-term success. We guide founders through the process of launching a new startup in just a few months.
Join the 12 week program and get $50,000 in seed funding and incubator support to validate your business model via MVP and working prototypes.
🛠 Work with an in-house team of technical mentors, product marketers, UX designers and business development consultants.
🤝 Access to a network of industry experts and partner organizations.
⏰ Commercial and technical office hours, with full support to de-bug and develop your solution.
👯 Connect with other teams in the program to exchange ideas, resources and learnings.
💰 Follow-on funding opportunities, so you can scale beyond seed.
🎤 Support with perfecting your pitch before demo day.
Where does your project fit?
💡 Seed - for new projects with little to no market traction, user base and minimal development.
Ideas will be incubated and must determine their product-market fit within a few months.
🚀 Scale up - relevant for projects which may be further along in their development, such as with a workable MVP, paying customers or provable market traction.
🔗 Synergy - we can support the meaningful integration of Mysterium with other ecosystems, apps or platforms.
Timeline
Some use cases & solutions we're funding
Privacy and encryption
tools for all
Geoshifting and open data
for Web2
P2P networking
and resource sharing
Web3 dapps, infrastructure
& integrations
There are no limitations. We’re looking for any meaningful application of our protocol, exit node network or technology. Check out our list of IDEAS further down this page.
Tech for Good
We encourage teams to build solutions for SOCIAL IMPACT .
We want to make sure resources are being used to solve real-world problems and creating shared value for communities and users in need.
Teams can collaborate with our partner organisations to create tools and infrastructure that champion digital rights.
Get in touch if you have an idea that can reshape our systems or societies for the better.
Criteria for applicants
Technical Requirements
⭑ Mysterium will consider funding projects and solutions which incorporate our node network, infrastructure or tooling.
⭑ Solution must be not harmful to Mysterium Network as a whole (e.g. does not abuse it in any way)If geared toward consumers, user experience will win.
⭑ Easily downloadable and usable by online communities.
⭑ Support the WireGuard protocol for VPN or proxy-based services.
⭑ Code must be open-sourced. The license should at the very least be compatible with Mysterium Network’s current license for our Node. It could be even more open and relaxed.
⭑ Maintainable code base.
⭑ Distribution via an app store where applicable.
Commercial Requirements
⭑ Ideas must be innovative or in-demand - is there any current proof that people want or need it? Can you demonstrate market potential, provide basic business modelling or profitability?
⭑ The potential to grow or scale fast.
⭑ Less competitors than more competitors is an advantage.
⭑ Identify the opportunity or value post-seed.
⭑ Pre-revenue - no other external funding.
⭑ In exchange for seed funding, Mysterium will receive a stake in the project. There must be no other stakeholders, other than founding members of your projects.
SOME MORE IDEAS...
⛏ Data mining and web scraping
With some simple code and a single API, you can launch your own tool or platform to index products and services from around the world; concert tickets, crypto prices, trainers, hotels, news articles, lead generation, sports match history, or even where to stream the latest movies... Source and organise the world’s information by your preferred metrics, such as price, relevance or time.
🔍 Browsers & Search Engines
How about a borderless browser? Create a forked version of Chrome, with a dVPN built into it, and create a “VPN” tab for each location around the world. You coul make an dVPN extension, and even add dual-mode so you can also run a node and earn crypto every time you're browsing. Or make a geoshifting search engine for indexing both Web2 and Web3.
🤺 Internet traffic protector
Launch a Mysterium “at home” network service. Protects your entire network, as well as acting as a node. You could even make an easy-to-prototype Mysterium hardware firewall, similar to Firewaller by CISCO.
📺 Media streaming apps and platforms
Create a way to bypass geoblocks for worldwide entertainment access. Make an Android TV app wit built in VPN, or an API or extension that routes popular streaming services.
🌐 Censorship-resistant toolchains and environment
Make a toolchain for developers and create the next big privacy app.
Create a backbone environment for developers, allowing more apps into the network for censorship-resistance. Check out this example R&D proposal.
🔄 Add more P2P services
Repurpose the network and add additional services to the P2P marketplace. Allow nodes to share internet resources such as data storage, processing power (CPU/GPU) or bandwidth for CDN.
🔗 Integrations
Plug the network into any app, service or ecoystsem that makes sense! Provide in-app VPN coverage for cryptocurrency wallet transactions. Help us make lighting network payments available on Mysterium, so that VPN users can pay nodes in bitcoin as they go.
🍏 Make Mysterium Apple friendly
First, check out our reference implementation on Android. Second, do the same, but for iOS.