Arbitrum Opens Second Mentorship Cohort With Robinhood Chain

The Arbitrum Foundation has opened applications for the second cohort of its Mentorship Program, expanding its founder initiative in collaboration with Robinhood Chain. The 12-week program targets early-stage teams committed to building or scaling products on Arbitrum One or Robinhood Chain, with applications remaining open until December 6.

According to the Arbitrum Foundation’s official announcement, the program is scheduled to begin January 5, 2027 and conclude with Demo Day on March 25. Selected founders will receive fundraising support, strategic mentorship and direct access to investors and ecosystem operators, alongside $100,000 in prizes available to top-performing teams.

Applicants do not need to have already deployed on Arbitrum infrastructure. Teams with an MVP, prototype, testnet deployment or early live product can apply if they are prepared to commit to Arbitrum One or Robinhood Chain, with the Foundation primarily targeting pre-seed and seed-stage companies.

Cohort 2 Expands Fundraising and Operating Support

The second cohort places fundraising support earlier in the program rather than concentrating investor exposure around Demo Day. Participants will receive pitch reviews, investment-readiness sessions, curated venture introductions and an internal Demo Day before the final presentation, giving teams several opportunities to refine their fundraising strategy.

Operational sessions will cover product strategy, go-to-market planning, user acquisition, partnerships, tokenomics, stablecoin infrastructure and AI tooling. The mentor network includes participants from Robinhood Chain, Pantera, Pendle, Variational, Paxos, Entropy and Offchain Labs, alongside the Arbitrum Foundation and other ecosystem contributors.

The final Demo Day is expected to bring participating companies before more than 50 investors. The $100,000 prize pool is discretionary rather than guaranteed funding, with awards subject to eligibility, KYC and sanctions screening and potentially tied to milestones or other contractual conditions.

Cohort 2 builds on a first program that drew more than 900 applications and ultimately sent 10 teams to Demo Day. The Foundation says companies from the first cohort have collectively reported raising more than $10 million since participating, while several launched products across Arbitrum One and Robinhood Chain.

Robinhood Chain Broadens the Program’s Deployment Options

The collaboration gives participating teams access to two different execution environments built around Arbitrum technology. Robinhood Chain has already developed markets spanning tokenized assets, stablecoins and DeFi, including $1.33 billion in tracked daily DEX volume during a September snapshot. Existing network activity provides distribution infrastructure for new applications without guaranteeing equivalent demand for every project entering the program.

Arbitrum One has simultaneously expanded its settlement infrastructure. Paxos-backed USDG recently launched natively on Arbitrum One with integrations across trading and lending applications. Native stablecoin availability gives incoming teams additional payment and liquidity infrastructure, although issuance alone does not establish adoption.

Robinhood Chain also supports institutional-credit products such as Maple’s syrupUSDG deployment, connecting on-chain lending infrastructure with Robinhood-facing distribution. The mentorship program therefore enters its second cohort with both networks already supporting live financial applications rather than serving only as development environments.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis ahead of the planned January kickoff. The measurable outcome will be whether the program converts mentorship and investor access into launched products, recurring users and successful fundraising, rather than the number of teams entering the cohort alone.