This article is from: @yzilabs
Compiled by | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina); Translator | Ethan (@ethanzhang_web3)
On December 3, YZi Labs officially announced the complete list of selected teams for EASY Residency Season 2, with 13 shortlisted teams set to officially present at the Demo Day session of Binance Blockchain Week.
It is noteworthy that this season's selected projects continue the hard tech genes of AI and Biotech from the first season while increasing the narrative weight of diversity. The list includes Bitcoin liquidity protocols, Blast ecosystem prediction markets, and other Web3 native projects, as well as cutting-edge hard technologies such as spatial intelligence and gene therapy. _（Recommended reading: _《From Tokenized Stocks to Carbon Credit Tracking, A Review of the Seven Hot Projects in EASY Residency Season 1》）
42.space: Trade Real-World Events Like Trading Memecoins
Founding Team:
Leo Zhang (Founder): Former research director at a New York crypto fund, previously worked in the equity derivatives department at KKR and MS (Morgan Stanley), holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from Stanford University.
Steve Kim (CTO): Founding engineer at several startups (later acquired by Walmart/Discord), holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.
Aleksi Ollikainen-Read (Strategic/Operations/Legal Advisor): Former head of strategy and operations at Consensys SMG, taught law at Oxford University, researcher at Harvard University/Max Planck Institute, qualified lawyer in England and Wales (E&W) since 2018.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
42.space is an asset issuance protocol that significantly broadens the boundaries of prediction markets. By utilizing bonding curves to construct event outcomes as a token launch platform, 42.space allows users to create and trade assets linked to real-world events. Trade like liquidity tokens; settle like prediction markets. This innovative mechanism is driven by a strong team of Stanford and Harvard alumni, along with seasoned Wall Street professionals, merging top engineering technology with advanced financial strategies. Through collaboration with BNB Chain, 42.space is introducing this novel, event-based asset to a vast user base, further expanding the landscape of DeFi.
4D Labs: Data Collection, Model Development, and Application for Spatial Intelligence Large Models
Founding Team:
Bruce Bai (CEO): PhD from Zhejiang University; serial entrepreneur; previously founded two computer vision startups.
Ian Y. Xu (Co-founder): Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan; PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong; previously worked at Meta Reality Labs and SenseTime.
Xin Zhou (Co-founder): Chief AI architect at Baidu USA; PhD from the University of Michigan; over 10 years of experience leading AI/generative AI systems.
Haoming (Co-founder): Postdoctoral researcher at Peking University; PhD from Zhejiang University; previously worked at Baidu; published over 10 top AI papers; serial entrepreneur (founded Deep Pink Elephant, xPerception, the latter acquired by Baidu).
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
4D Labs is at the intersection of AI, 3D technology, and Web3, dedicated to solving a fundamental bottleneck in the era of spatial computing: how to obtain scalable, verifiable, and high-quality 3D data. With its spatial large model and 3D data generation and acquisition processes, combined with a tokenized data rights framework, 4D Labs has become an early pioneer in the 3D data infrastructure field. As digital twins and embodied AI accelerate, a 3D data network based on ownership will become crucial, making 4D Labs a timely and strategically significant investment in the foundational layer of the next computing paradigm.
AllScale: A Lightweight Self-Hosted New Bank for Cross-Border Business Operations
Founding Team:
Shawn Pang (CEO) – Former payment product manager at TikTok & Capital One; serial entrepreneur; previously responsible for listing business at KuCoin. Leo Wang (COO) – Former employee at Amazon, IBM, and Scotiabank; fintech and infrastructure builder.
Alisha Li (CMO) – Former partner at Honeycomb Capital, former sales director at HP, Dell, and Sun.
Khalil Lin (Compliance Officer) – Licensed attorney in New York; previously worked at Kraken, The Block.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
AllScale is building a self-hosted stablecoin bank that simplifies payment, payroll, and invoicing processes for businesses in a compliant and intuitive manner. Our investment stems from early signs of strong product-market fit, supported by natural growth momentum and robust retention metrics. AllScale combines the speed and transparency of stablecoins with a user experience that perfectly aligns with modern business operations and compliance needs, positioning itself favorably to capture market share.
Advent: AI-Driven Precision Gene Therapy Platform
Founding Team:
Bonnie Zhu: Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST); PhD from Stanford University.
Kai Liu: Professor at HKUST; globally recognized leader in the field of neuroscience.
Yuan Yao: PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University; currently the Sales and Marketing Director for BD Medical Infusion and Hemodialysis in the U.S.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Advent is at the forefront of the delivery of cell and gene therapies, utilizing proprietary viral protein datasets and a specially built AI-driven platform to reduce the discovery time of adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsids from months to weeks. Its internal high-throughput data, scalable differentiated capsid intellectual property pipeline, and synthetic capsids that outperform natural serotypes create a formidable technological moat in this rapidly expanding market. Advent has a strong team and clear technological differentiation advantages, making it a timely investment opportunity that aligns with major precedents in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) market.
AgriDynamics: Fruit-Picking Robots to Address Farm Labor Crisis
Founding Team:
Dr. Zhaojian Li (CTO): Associate Professor at Michigan State University, responsible for the commercialization of patented modular apple-picking robots developed with funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Kyle Lammers (CEO): Engaged in apple-picking robot research for six years, recipient of the Michigan Agricultural Bioinnovation Award, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Best Student Presentation Award, and American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Intelligent Transportation Systems Community Best Paper Award.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
The company addresses one of the most severe cost and labor challenges in American specialty agriculture—apple picking—through a patented, field-validated robotic platform recognized by major grower associations. In the apple picking sector, labor costs account for about 70% of production costs. Its modular, commercializable system and defensive intellectual property provide a clear first-mover advantage in this multi-billion dollar field. With a scalable roadmap for expansion into other high-value crops and recurring service or software revenue, the company is poised to become a core automation infrastructure for specialty agriculture.
Bento.fun: The Social Layer of Prediction Markets
Founding Team:
Abhitej Singh (CEO): Former Growth Lead at Persistence/pSTAKE; Co-founder of Cosmos India; Founder of Filament (with a transaction volume of $100 million and $1.15 million in funding).
Pratyaksh Inani (CPO): Quantitative trader since age 13; former Finance/Product Lead at Persistence; Co-founder of Filament.
Rajeeb Kumar (Engineer): Former employee at Nethermind, IIT graduate with 6 years of DeFi/contract engineering experience, and a 10-time hackathon champion.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Bento transforms daily fan debates on Telegram, Twitter, and WhatsApp into simple, quick micro-duels with amounts ranging from $1 to $10, opening up space for a large casual fan base and showing considerable trading volume potential. The founders possess deep domain expertise, targeting high-traffic global fan circles such as cricket and Formula 1 racing. As a native prediction market component on the BNB Chain, Bento aligns directly with our ecosystem strategy and promotes broader on-chain participation through low-friction social betting.
Frontrun: A Professional Trader Wallet Designed for Fast Discovery, Due Diligence, and Execution
Founding Team:
Chris (Founder & CEO): Former employee at Robinhood Crypto (responsible for building deposit and withdrawal features); founding engineer at Sui (led an 8-person team to build a browser, SDK, RPC, and a wallet with over 1 million users).
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Frontrun is a trader-centric wallet designed for fast asset discovery, quick due diligence, and seamless trade execution, directly addressing the obvious pain points of high-frequency traders. Early natural growth and strong retention data validate the product's fit with a highly attractive initial entry point: a high-value trader group within a multi-billion dollar TAM (with Solana's annual fees exceeding $1 billion as evidence). Its multi-chain development roadmap and synergy with the BNB Chain DeFi ecosystem make Frontrun a strategically significant addition to the broader trading infrastructure stack.
Help.fun: A Crypto Launchpad for Non-Profit Tokens
Founding Team:
Helena Everley: Co-founder, undergraduate student at Stanford University.
Arash Attar: Co-founder and CTO, previously developed one of the fastest mobile trading applications for memecoins and a high-performance sneaker purchasing bot.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Help.fun aims to build a crypto-native fundraising channel that allows non-profits and startups to issue charitable tokens through fair, bot-resistant distribution methods, addressing the long-standing issue of trust in on-chain fundraising. Its anti-sniping mechanisms (including decoys, puzzles, and gas traps) ensure fairness in participation, providing a credible alternative to predatory memecoin launches. With excellent early execution and a strong alignment with the culture and liquidity of the BNB Chain, Help.fun is expected to become a scalable on-chain fundraising vehicle for mission-driven organizations.
Hertzflow: A Permissionless Leverage Market for Any Asset
Founding Team:
Vincent Shang: Co-founder; has over 10 years of experience in the crypto space and is an influential Chinese KOL.
Hero: Co-founder and Product Lead; previously worked at Coinbase, responsible for CDP and Prime MPC wallet business.
Soren: Technical Lead; former core developer at Mantle (early engineering team member involved from the ground up).
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Hertzflow aims to bridge the gap between the traditional retail derivatives market, which has a daily trading volume of up to $4.5 trillion, and the on-chain economy. The protocol is led by a team with deep expertise in traditional derivatives, specifically designed to attract a large and untapped non-crypto-native trader demographic. Hertzflow has a mature product operating within the BNB Chain ecosystem that combines the efficiency of permissionless on-chain settlement with a user experience tailored for the vast global trading market.
Manifolds: An AI-Driven 3D Spatial Controllable Video Generation Platform
Founding Team:
Qingyuan Shan (CEO): Former Senior Vice President of Enterprise Business at Hejing Technology; former Strategic Head at Taiyang Chuanhe; undergraduate in Mathematics from the University at Buffalo; Master's in Applied Analytics from Columbia University.
Yudong Tao (CTO): Former Research Data Scientist at Meta; Bachelor's in Electronic Engineering from Fudan University, PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Miami.
Naiyuan Huang (COO): Former Sales and Marketing Head (Series A) at Hejing Technology; alumni of CEIBS; previously drove the development of China's second-largest AI talent community.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Manifolds is a key bet on controllable, 3D-perceptive AI video technology, viewing it as an enabling layer for the next generation of content creation and embodied AI applications. Its technological differentiation advantages—including 3D spatial generation, physical perception simulation, mixed rendering, and refined object/camera control—position it favorably in high-growth verticals such as e-commerce visualization and real-world integrated AI systems. Strong early business development momentum (annual revenue of $150,000 with 60 paid enterprise clients acquired without paid marketing) demonstrates its clear product maturity, scalability potential, and excellent founder-market fit.
MeleeMon: Competitive Mobile Games Based on Stablecoin Betting
Founding Team:
Alex (CEO): A top 500 Pokémon competitive player globally for four consecutive years; possesses excellent founder-market fit.
Jasper (CTO): Over 6 years of experience in Unity and React development.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
MeleeMon is a skill-based mobile monster battle game. The team has an excellent founder-market fit, possessing game development experience supported by YC (the previous company Gamebytes had over 5 million users) and deep credentials in the Pokémon competitive field, along with a clear understanding of blockchain-enabled gaming economies. The project targets the large and validated Web2 gambling game market while introducing a new competitive gaming loop on-chain. Given YZi Labs' focus on high-quality, engaging gaming experiences on the BNB Chain, MeleeMon demonstrates strong strategic alignment and reliable execution.
Neomera BioLab: A Non-Opioid Drug Development Platform for Chronic Pain and Mainstream Chronic Diseases
Founding Team:
Rebecca Miao (CEO): Over 15 years of drug development experience; former Chief Scientific Officer at AKSO Bio; led multiple investigational new drug applications approved by the FDA; secured $75 million in pharmaceutical collaborations; holds over 200 patents; postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.
Jimmy Xu (CTO): Bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University; PhD and postdoctoral fellow in Bioengineering from Stanford University; expert in drug screening optimization and biomedical AI.
Yi Lu (CFO): Serial entrepreneur transitioning from investor, previously advanced a novel pain therapy from concept to clinical trials, receiving coverage and awards from top international publications; holds an MBA from Stanford University; previously worked at Bain Capital and Madrone Capital Partners.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Neomera is dedicated to addressing the urgent need for non-addictive therapies for over 1 billion chronic pain patients worldwide. Its "biology-first, AI-accelerated" discovery platform creates a unique advantage: the ability to generate highly relevant proprietary internal data and successfully tackle indications that traditional methods struggle with. This tightly integrated wet lab and machine learning loop fundamentally compresses experimental timelines by up to 80%, establishing a scalable and differentiated engine for rapid drug development for refractory chronic diseases.
Sats Terminal: A Native Bitcoin Liquidity Protocol
Founding Team:
Stan Havryliuk (CEO): Former senior leader at Bitcoin.com, ZondaCrypto, and Ambisafe; led multiple teams from 5 to 50 members.
Rishabh Java (CTO): Serial fintech entrepreneur with exit experience; developed multiple Bitcoin products; former CTO of Ordinals Council, ToshiPad, and Crackedevs.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Sats Terminal is built on BTC and EVM chains (primarily BNB and Base), operating in a large and expanding market driven by BTC lending, yield, and trading demand. They initially entered the market with a Swap aggregation model, quickly accumulating a solid B2B user base (capturing 75% of Runes trading volume; over 30 integrated projects), and are currently expanding into the BTC credit and yield market, showing strong initial momentum. Their early institutional support includes a $1.7 million Pre-seed round led by Coinbase Ventures and Draper Associates.
Saturn Labs: A Platform Offering Over 10% Yield Based on Bitcoin Credit
Founding Team:
Kevin Li (Co-founder & CEO): Co-founder and researcher at ParaFi; former DAT lead at Artemis.
Sebastian Melendez (Co-founder & CTO): Co-founder, former stablecoin lead at Artemis.
Ellis Osborn (Co-founder & COO): Chair of Penn Blockchain; former investor at M31 Capital.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
YZi Labs supports Saturn because the team is building a yield-generating stablecoin with over 10% yield, driven by MicroStrategy's STRC (a transparent and institution-grade BTC credit tool). Saturn sits at the intersection of three rapidly growing sectors in crypto: stablecoins, DATs, and RWAs. The demand for transparent, scalable real yield reserves is increasing, and the founding team’s deep experience in DATs, DeFi, and stablecoin architecture positions Saturn to become a core layer of the on-chain economy.
Predict.fun: Enhancing Liquidity in Prediction Markets to Address Capital Inefficiency Using DeFi
Founder:
Ding: Former consultant/investment banker; joined Binance in 2017 and built the Research & Listing team; led Binance Launchpad (2019); founder of PancakeSwap (2020); co-founder of Predict.fun (2024).
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Predict.fun empowers a new class of mainstream prediction markets by transforming event trading into a revenue-generating, leveraged, and self-custodial financial primitive, allowing users to fully enjoy DeFi services while participating in predictions. By integrating DeFi-native yields, a smooth on-chain user experience (such as AA account abstraction and gasless transactions), and composability, the protocol effectively lowers the user barrier and positions the prediction market as an easily accessible, utility-driven product for a broader non-crypto-native audience.
Trellis Robotics: Unlocking AI Soft Robotics Platforms for Hard-to-Reach Industrial Assets
Founding Team:
Yimeng Qin (CEO): PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University; chief developer of core vine robotics technology (expected to graduate in March 2026).
Elvy Yao (COO): Master's student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University (expected to graduate in December 2025); key contributor to Trellis platform's sensor casing, steering, and mechatronics.
William Heap (Technical Lead): PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University (will work full-time after 2028); has been researching vine robotics systems at UC Santa Barbara and Stanford University since 2019.
YZi Labs' Investment Logic:
Trellis Robotics addresses one of the costly and hazardous challenges in industrial operations: the inspection of confined space infrastructure. The precision, reach, and safety levels of its unique vine robotics platform are unmatched by human inspectors and existing tools, creating a clear competitive advantage in a large and underserved market. Early validations include pilot projects with Dow Chemical and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as well as interest from BASF, Bayer, and Chevron, indicating that the technology is ready to meet market demands and has a reliable path to enterprise-scale applications.
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