Pharos Network has unveiled a major incubator program, "Native to Pharos," backed by over $10 million, aimed at accelerating the development of financial products that bridge real-world assets (RWAs) with decentralized finance (DeFi). Announced on February 3, 2026, the program is designed to provide early-stage teams with capital, hands-on technical mentorship, strategic go-to-market guidance, fundraising support, and access to legal and financial advisors.
The initiative targets startups requiring low latency, composability, and scalable on-chain execution—essential for building exchanges, yield infrastructure, vaults containing tokenized RWAs, and real-world outcome prediction markets. Pharos emphasizes that its developer tooling is AI-driven to speed up integration and reduce repetitive work.
The program has attracted a notable roster of backers and strategic partners, including Hack VC, Draper Dragon, Lightspeed Faction, and Centrifuge. Draper Dragon, a cross-border venture fund linking Silicon Valley and Asia, and Lightspeed's crypto arm are highlighted as key supporters. Wish Wu of Pharos stated, "Pharos is committed to building a thriving RealFi ecosystem and empowering builders who share our vision. The Pharos Incubator is designed as a full-spectrum partnership... Our goal is to help teams succeed while fostering collaboration across the broader Pharos community."
Pharos stakes its value proposition on technical features built for what it terms "RealFi": a modular architecture, deep parallel execution, and compliance primitives intended to make tokenized assets more manageable for institutions. The network aims to deliver sub-second finality and high throughput while allowing for permissioning and regulatory tooling when necessary.
To kick off recruitment, Pharos will take its first cohort to Hong Kong, aligning with the Global Web3 Developer Conference's hackathon and builder activities produced with partners like Web3Labs and Consensus. This move signals a strategic focus on attracting teams seeking regulatory clarity and proximity to Asia-Pacific institutional capital flows. Applicants will have the opportunity to meet mentors and investors in person during the event.
For startups focused on real-world finance, the incubator promises advantages beyond funding: direct engineering time with the core protocol team, access to partners across tokenization and custody, and introductions to an existing investor base. By aligning capital, technology, and market access, Pharos aims to accelerate the path from prototype to production for protocols requiring predictable performance and on-chain composability.
Applications for the Native to Pharos program are now open on the Pharos website. The network positions itself as an inclusive financial Layer 1 where institutional-grade and real-world assets can circulate on-chain while remaining composable with decentralized liquidity.
