Coinbase, Animoca Brands, Fabric Ventures Announce Web3 Accelerator In UK

The program is designed to help the next wave of startups grow, reach the right market, and attract investment—supporting tech as a major driver of the UK economy.

The accelerator will work with a diverse group of founders building projects in blockchain payments, AI, entertainment, and more.

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Founders Factory will provide training and hands-on help with things like business strategy, product development, marketing, and fundraising.

Meanwhile, Fabric Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Coinbase will offer support with tokenomics, building communities, and scaling blockchain and AI businesses.

Muirhead contends:

“We're seeing a platform shift in computing, and the convergence of AI and Web3 is creating incredible opportunities.”

Fabric Ventures was started in 2012 and invests in Web3 startups, digital assets, and new tech businesses. Under its leader’s guidance, the firm has supported big names like Polkadot, Ocean Protocol, Orchid, Sorare, 1inch, The Graph, and NEAR.

Before starting Fabric Ventures, Muirhead founded Tideway Systems in 2002, growing it to $20 million in revenue before it was sold to BMC Software in 2009. He also co-founded Orchestream, which went public in 2000 and reached a market value of £1 billion at its peak.

His inspiration for this latest initiative comes from his time as an entrepreneur in residence at Accel Partners 25 years ago. 

“They paid me a solid stipend to go out and build a billion-dollar company. That experience stuck with me.

Many of us remain in love with what a well-functioning tech ecosystem can do for humanity—whether that’s financial inclusion, improved healthcare outcomes, or more sustainable aviation.

 I’m an optimist. There's still a lot of capital sitting idle, being protected rather than put to good use. We should be investing in people with bold ideas who can build transformative technologies.”

Muirhead contends:

“We've long believed it's the best way to organise data from the bottom up. AI is now a huge use case for Web3. With the rise of stablecoins and infrastructure, and now AI entering the picture, we’re at a major inflection point.”

As a journalist who has covered blockchain in industry, I’ve noticed a clear pattern: many startups show their technology works through partnerships and pilot projects, but they still struggle to turn that into real business with paying customers.

This is frustrating and often leads to wasted research and development, as companies either shut down or shift focus to something else.

Muirhead contends that this is changing.

“Embodied AI — artificial intelligence systems that can interact with and learn from their environments — has matured. Silicon is better, models are better, and there's a growing community thinking about what wild new applications we can actually build.”

Further, it feels like we’ve moved from “too early” to “now or never.”

Muirhead agrees, noting that “it's been “too early” for 10 years, until it suddenly isn’t.

"No one has a crystal ball, but we can cast a wide net to find the best founders and support them, especially now, when there's so much technological convergence.”