Mozilla Goes Full Incubator and Early Stage Investments

 

Mozilla Goes Full Incubator and Early Stage Investments

What is Mozilla Doing?

After testing incubator-esque MVP Lab, Mozilla is doubling down its effort with a formal program, offering $75,000 investments to early stage companies. Mozilla's focus on “a better society” and the company’s open-source clout should help differentiate it from the other options out there.

“The mission of this incubator is to catalyze a new generation of internet products and services where the people are in control of how the internet is used to shape society,” said Bart Decrem, a Mozilla veteran (think Firefox 1.0) and one of the principals at the Builders Studio. “And where business models should be sustainable and valuable, but do not need to squeeze every last dollar (or ounce of attention) from the user.”

How & What of the Incubator?

The new incubator will be divided into three tiers.

• First is the “Startup Studio,” which involves a $75,000 investment, “a post-money SAFE for 3.5% of the company when the SAFE converts (or we will participate in an already active funding round),” Decrem clarified.
• Sencond, as far as pecuniary commitment goes, is the “MVP Lab,” offering a total of $16,000 per team. 
• Third is the Open Lab again, but with 10 $10,000 prizes rather than a top 3.

There are no hard numbers on how many teams will make up the two subsidized tiers, but think 20-30 total as opposed to 50 or 100. Meanwhile, collaboration, cross-pollination and open-source code is encouraged, as it be might expected in a Mozilla project. The social good aspect is strong as well, as a sampling of the companies in the spring batch shows.