Author: Zen, PANews
In the current wave of global technology and innovation investment, the concept of incubator is undergoing a transformation from a "concept testing ground" to a "systematic strategic platform". Offline long-term incubators, especially those for early-stage technology entrepreneurs, are seen as an important engine for promoting the innovation ecosystem, but their high operating costs, complex resource allocation, and difficulty in organization and execution have deterred many institutions.
In early 2025, YZi Labs, which was transformed from Binance Labs, launched its first offline long-term incubation project "EASY Residency", which aroused widespread attention in the industry to the evolution of the Web3 incubation model.
YZi Labs was jointly initiated by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and co-founder He Yi. It was formerly Binance Labs, an investment business affiliated with the Binance platform, and then strategically upgraded to an independent family office. At the same time, CZ and He Yi also invited Ella Zhang, who led the establishment of Binance Labs in the early years, to take charge again.
In terms of project design, EASY Residency attempts to break the stereotype of the traditional accelerator "standardized training camp" and instead build a resident-style companion incubation system centered on the real needs of entrepreneurs. Through the space arrangement for the integration of team life and work, as well as in-depth support in multiple dimensions such as technology, market, and talent, YZi Labs hopes to help founders lay a foundation for long-term development.
PANews recently invited Ella Zhang for an exclusive interview. During the discussion, Ella shared in detail the transformation, positioning and investment logic of YZi Labs, as well as the launch and story behind the first incubator project EASY Residency.
Ella: From the first generation to taking the helm again
"I firmly believe that technology changes the world, and this is the foundation of my interest in high-tech." Ella Zhang regards emerging technologies as the core driving force of her career development. In the early stage of her career, she worked at Tencent and Google, laying a solid background in the Internet and high-tech.
From 2010 to 2015, Ella worked as an investment manager at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a well-known venture capital firm, and was deeply involved in the early investments of many leading Chinese consumer Internet companies such as JD.com and Himalaya. During her years as an investor at KPCB, she received rigorous professional training from top venture capitalists such as the "Internet Queen" Mary Meeker and the "King of Venture Capital" John Doerr. It was during this period that she forged a friendship with Binance co-founder He Yi, laying the foundation for subsequent cooperation.
In 2015, Ella left China to study at Stanford University School of Business in the United States for two years. In January 2017, Zhao Changpeng founded Binance in Shanghai. Ella initially wanted to provide support as a venture capitalist, but was moved by Binance founder CZ's passion for Web3 ideals and finally decided to join the Binance team and work with him to promote the construction of the blockchain ecosystem.
In early 2018, Ella co-founded Binance Labs with CZ and served as the first person in charge, leading the establishment and operation of the incubator. Under her leadership, Binance Labs completed three phases of incubation plans and invested in a total of 40 to 50 projects, including the later emerging industry leaders such as Polygon, CertiK, and Injective Protocol. Binance Labs' early investment return rate was outstanding, which also won the recognition of the market and the community for the incubator.
Ella always tries to think from the perspective of entrepreneurs. She said, "The best investors have empathy for entrepreneurs." Therefore, she chose to leave Binance Labs two years later and embarked on the path of pursuing her entrepreneurial dream. She founded a startup company based on AI technology and focusing on smart supply chain. In just four and a half years, she completed two rounds of financing, achieved rapid growth from 0 to 1, and pushed the company into a stable development stage.
In early 2025, driven by CZ and He Yi, Binance Labs completed its transformation to a family office model and changed its name to YZi Labs. Ella was invited to return and take the helm of this global investment and incubation platform again. The independently operated YZi Labs is no longer limited to the blockchain field, but further extends to cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology, aiming to capture more innovative opportunities that "have not yet happened."
Transform into a family office and get rid of the constraints of the exit cycle
In the past few years, Binance Labs has made remarkable achievements in its investment in the Web3 field. As for the motivation for this transformation, Ella said that it was mainly because CZ and He Yi stood at a higher dimension of "technology changing the world". They believed that in addition to blockchain and cryptocurrency, more cutting-edge fields that can have a profound impact on human society should be covered, including AI that "subverts traditional productivity" and biotechnology/medical health that "makes humans healthier and longer-lived".
Previously, Binance Labs was an internal VC of Binance, focusing only on investment and co-construction in the Web3 field. YZi Labs has a greater vision to deepen its presence in the fields of AI, Web3, and Biotech and promote the progress of human society. CZ's financial strength is now among the best in the world. According to the Forbes Rich List , as of June 10, CZ's assets reached US$65.7 billion, ranking 24th in the world, second only to Nvidia's founder Huang Renxun among Chinese.
Ella pointed out that as an independent investment entity, YZi Labs is not limited by the exit cycle of traditional VC funds and can accompany the growth of projects over a longer period of time, rather than rushing to exit in the short term. Therefore, its investment is more focused on "incremental value creation" rather than zero-sum games. When making decisions, it focuses more on the disruptive innovation of the project and the founder's long-term ability to stick to it, rather than simply short-term market fluctuations.
In addition, the flexibility of the family office also allows the team to conduct in-depth research across tracks and fast-track company development stages, conduct full-chain scans of the three major vertical fields of cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology worldwide, identify and support founders and projects with the most long-term value, and provide founders with personalized resource docking and strategic support through the "in-depth research + precise empowerment" approach.
"Barbell" layout
Based on the insight into the phased characteristics of venture capital, YZi Labs has found its own balance between risk and return, time and value. In terms of specific investment strategies and layout, Ella described YZi Labs' investment as focusing on the two ends of a "barbell".
In terms of early incubation, YZi Labs launched an offline resident incubation project called "EASY Residency", the first phase of which was launched on June 2 and lasted for 10 weeks. The project is dedicated to serving entrepreneurs with great potential and plans to invest $500,000 in each accepted startup. More importantly, compared with traditional VCs that only provide support after the project is implemented, YZi emphasizes "hand-in-hand" companionship: from product design, technology implementation to community operation and compliance planning, each team can obtain personalized resource docking.
In addition, with the help of the 300 million user base of Binance ecosystem, including BNB Chain, CMC, Trust Wallet, and the user traffic and industry network of more than 300 invested companies, the incubated teams can focus on polishing products in the purest environment and achieve rapid verification or business model iteration. "The risk of incubation projects may indeed be high, because many of the excellent entrepreneurs we support sometimes only start from an idea. But the reason why we keep doing this is because we always believe that entrepreneurship is never a one-time process." Ella said that YZi Labs hopes that these potential entrepreneurs can continue to grow in a good and vibrant network environment.
At the other end of the barbell, YZi Labs looks at projects that have completed TGE or have proven their value in the primary, secondary and equity markets. After preliminary market testing, these projects often have relatively mature technical routes and stable community foundations, but in an environment of uneven market liquidity and squeezed private equity capital, they still need more resources and strategic support. With the long-term capital advantages of family offices, YZi can continue to increase holdings for such projects and push them to the next stage of growth.
This "two-end force" strategy is also a response to the "new normal" of the Web3 market in recent years. On the one hand, the concept of fair launch and the prevalence of Meme coins have broken the traditional VC coin model, and the risks of early projects have become increasingly severe; on the other hand, a large amount of liquidity funds that prefer mature projects have poured into the secondary market, but there is often a sell-off after listing, resulting in a disconnect between price and value. Under such circumstances, YZi's barbell layout can capture disruptive innovations at the incubation end and lock in high-quality assets that have been tested by the market at the growth end.
Empowering investment portfolio: Marketing and talent reinforcement
Recently, a research report jointly released by Chainplay and Stroible has attracted widespread attention. The report pointed out that nearly 45% of the 1,181 crypto projects that received venture capital between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2024 have ceased operations, and mentioned that the failure rate of projects supported by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) reached 72%.
In response, Ella said that the failure rate of YZi Labs' investment portfolio mentioned in the report was much higher than the actual rate. She also pointed out that whether it is in the crypto field or traditional equity venture capital, the high risk of early projects is the norm in the industry, which is a basic rule that all venture capital markets cannot avoid. In terms of optimizing the existing portfolio, YZi Labs also adheres to a pragmatic style. She said frankly that she would focus her limited energy and resources on those teams that still have potential.
After Ella returned, she had in-depth conversations with 5 to 10 invested founders every week to sort out their two most urgent needs - marketing promotion and core talent reinforcement, in order to provide precise support.
Specifically, in terms of marketing, for B2B projects, the team uses its extensive business development (BD) network to connect projects with industry customers and partners; for B2C projects, it uses KOL resources and community operations to help brand exposure and user growth. In terms of talent, YZi Labs is using AI technology to build an internal talent pool, incorporating a large number of outstanding founders and professionals accumulated during the incubation process. Ideally, when the portfolio team needs co-founders or core positions, YZi Labs can quickly match the right person from this talent pool to safeguard the development of the project.
The difficulties behind the first EASY Residency
Due to the continuous operation and capital investment in multiple dimensions, offline long-term incubator projects are extremely difficult. Ella revealed that when launching the first "Easy Residence" incubation project, they foresaw that they would encounter extremely challenging multi-party problems. First of all, in terms of logistics and organization: there were 20 teams and more than 40 co-founders in the first phase. To ensure that they could work and live in the same place, they had to find a venue that could guarantee work efficiency and provide food and accommodation services. This kind of "integration" physical coordination is very difficult.
She said that thanks to the enthusiasm and execution of Cathy Dou, head of EASY Residency, and her team, they quickly overcame a series of obstacles such as site sourcing and logistical arrangements, allowing everyone to focus on products and collaboration.
As soon as the EASY Residency program was launched, the team received more than 1,000 applications within a month. Faced with such a large scale, the team organized, interviewed and evaluated candidates from Europe, the United States and other regions almost day and night, and completed more than 100 interviews in two and a half weeks, and finally selected about 1% of outstanding founders. This process is a great test of the team's screening efficiency and judgment.
It is understood that among more than 1,000 applications, AI surprisingly accounted for about 47%, which is a considerable number; Web3 projects accounted for about 30%, and the rest were mainly medical health and AI+Web3 projects. The final participating projects of the first EASY Residency are mainly Web3 and AI. YZi Labs also expects to welcome more medical health, life science and other cross-industry projects in the second and third EASY Residency.
In terms of selection criteria, in addition to technical strength and business potential, Ella emphasized that she would pay special attention to the founder's "long-termism" quality. She believes that entrepreneurship is bound to be accompanied by countless ups and downs and external interference. People who can persist and continue to innovate often have two key driving forces: first, a natural curiosity and deep interest in the problem being solved; second, an emotional resonance formed by personal experience and the problem.
“Therefore, we often ask in the interview, “Why do you want to solve this problem? What special meaning does this project have for you personally?” Ella said that through rounds of “Why” questions and answers, we deeply explore the inner motivation and stress resistance of entrepreneurs, and ensure that every selected candidate has the potential to work long-term and grow in the excellent founder community.
What makes EASY Residency different?
There are already many mature acceleration and incubation projects on the market, such as the leading Y Combinator, Techstars and a16z Crypto Startup School, which also provide support services similar to Easy Residency to varying degrees.
When asked about the moat or differentiation advantage of EASY Residency, Ella said: "First and foremost, the core is the dedication of our team to this project." She further added: "We regard Easy Residency as a "product" and always take entrepreneurs as users. When designing this project, we constantly think about the real needs of entrepreneurs instead of simply outputting unified training content."
YZi Labs has a large network of mentors, which allows entrepreneurs to choose the most suitable mentors from different backgrounds and fields according to their own needs and enjoy one-on-one guidance. The YZi Labs team will also "claim" some incubation teams according to the division of labor to deeply understand their core needs, and then tailor the corresponding resources for them to ensure that they can help them land. "A successful investor is one who makes entrepreneurs think of calling you first when they are most confused and have the most difficult decision." Ella, who has both investment and entrepreneurial experience, once again emphasized the importance of empathy, "It is with this kind of heartfelt companionship and service that we distinguish EASY Residency from other incubators."
In addition, the second biggest difference of EASY Residency is the ecological resources it relies on. She pointed out that the outside world usually thinks that projects seek support from YZi Labs for listing, but there is no direct correlation between Labs investment and Binance listing. The real value of YZi Labs lies in the fact that the ecosystem has the largest Web3 user base in the world. For example, products such as Trust Wallet and CoinMarketCap have accumulated hundreds of millions of users, becoming an important channel for the market promotion of entrepreneurial teams.
The Future of YZi Labs
YZi Labs invests in Web3 because it is reshaping the underlying architecture of global assets and allowing the circulation of value across traditional barriers; it supports artificial intelligence because it uses algorithms to redefine efficiency boundaries and provide new solutions to complex problems; it devotes itself to medical technology and life health because it believes that more people in the world deserve to have healthier, happier and longer lives.
Ella also extended an invitation to long-term builders in the fields of Web3, AI, medical and life sciences: "Welcome to apply for YZi Labs' investment on the official website "; the second phase of EASY Residency will soon be open for applications, and you can continue to follow its developments on x (@yzilabs).
YZi Labs' investors use empathy as a boat to understand the needs of entrepreneurs and the stories behind them; they use long-termism as an anchor to accompany those persistence that are not easy to see but worth cherishing.
YZi Labs hopes to attract and help more entrepreneurs who dare to dream and practice, making this place a global innovation soil, allowing more visions to take root, sprout and reshape the world.
