Web3Bridge, the Nigerian developer training organisation that has trained blockchain engineers since 2019, is expanding into startup incubation and plans to charge entrepreneurs for its new founder residency programme.
The shift is a bet that Africa’s Web3 and broader tech industry needs more businesses that can hire developers, not just more skilled engineers. It also allows Web3Bridge to build a sustainable revenue model as grants become harder to secure after Lisk, one of its major ecosystem funders, shut down and early-stage startup funding remains selective.
In an email to users on Thursday, Web3Bridge said it is opening a new training cohort, capped at 150 participants, alongside a founder residency programme that will help entrepreneurs develop products, attract customers, understand business models, and raise capital, with registrations to close on November 28.
“Training developers alone is not enough,” Awosika said in the email seen by TechCabal. “We need builders who understand how products are created, how businesses operate and how technology can solve real-world problems.”
The new cohort will cover conventional software engineering (Web2), blockchain development and Rust programming, and Zero Knowledge (ZK) development, used to build secure digital payment and identity verification systems that protect users’ private information. The cohort will also feature on-site learning options across all tracks, according to the email.
Web3Bridge is expanding beyond technical training into startup incubation, entering a market where CV Labs, the accelerator arm of Swiss blockchain venture capital firm Crypto Valley VC, already operates.
The expansion comes after seven years of training developers amid blockchain project closures, declining funding, and limited job opportunities for skilled engineers. Lisk, one of Web3Bridge’s funding partners, shut down its blockchain network in October and closed its investment fund as it shifted focus to financial software.
In October, Awosika told local publication Technext that the organisation had invested nearly ₦700 million ($520,630) in physical infrastructure without recovering that expense, while its reliance on grants had become difficult to sustain.
The residency will introduce participation fees for eligible founders and is expected to kick off on November 12.
African Web3 startups raised $90.1 million across 28 deals in 2025, down 26.6% from the previous year, according to CV VC’s African Blockchain Report. The five largest deals accounted for 58.3% of the funding, underscoring how investment remains concentrated among a handful of startups and the challenge facing emerging founders seeking capital to turn their ideas into viable businesses.