The Web3 educational platform provider Rise In, which partners with some of the biggest blockchains in the business, is expanding through the acquisition of ed-tech startup BlockBeam. The acquisition was announced as Rise In said it’s seeking additional funding from the Open Campus Accelerator for Ed-Tech Founders.
Through the acquisition, Rise In said it will gain better access to students at some of the top universities in the U.S., bringing desperately needed Web3 talent to one of the world’s biggest markets.
Launched by Turkish-based Web3 training platform Patika.dev, Rise In has created an e-learning bootcamp management platform that’s used by a staggering 200,000 Web2 developers. The idea is to teach those developers the skills they need to build in the decentralized world. Patika.dev launched Rise In in September 2023 to reach developers from all around the world and has already onboarded more than 25,000 of them to Web3 via a range of online courses and bootcamps.
Rise In’s educational programs cover everything from blockchain basics to more technical chain-specific technical courses on Solidity, Rust, and Substrate development. One of the advantages of the platform is that it’s entirely free for developers, as Rise In’s blockchain partners provide all of the course materials and resources. Its partners include the Ethereum Foundation, Polkadot, Solana, Sui, BNB Chain and Internet Computer.
Unlike many other training platforms, Rise In goes further than just providing educational materials. Once graduated, its newly trained talent can obtain further assistance in order to seek various kinds of grants offered by blockchain communities, and take part in hackathons and bounty programs. Rise In also offers to help developers find their first jobs, and will soon launch its first internship program for college students, who account for about 31% of bootcamp participants.
While Rise In has made a lot of progress in its short lifetime, it has struggled to make inroads in the U.S. market. That will change through the acquisition of BlockBeam, which is one of the country’s oldest and biggest Web3 ed-tech platforms. Notably, BlockBeam has forged partnerships with more than 90 blockchain clubs ran by prestigious U.S. universities including Princeton, Berkeley and Harvard. Besides offering training, BlockBeam helps college students looking to kick-start their developer careers by assisting them with their Web3 job search.
Once the acquisition of BlockBeam is finalized, Rise In said it will add around 1,000 U.S. developers to its platform. It’s a significant achievement, Rise In said, because it’s more difficult to acquire U.S.-based developers than it is to recruit talent from other countries. Of course, Rise In will also be able to tap BlockBeam’s existing partnerships with U.S. universities.
Rise In co-founder and Chief Executive Gulcan Yayla said his organization shares a similar vision with BlockBeam, as both platforms have experimented with the best ways to attract and train Web3 talent. “We are passionate about providing a structured and easy-to-follow onboarding process for developers, leading to a meaningful career,” he explained. “Seeing the same passion in the BlockBeam team and their close relationship with the university clubs helped us make the acquisition decision.”
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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