Investment firm YZi Labs has opened applications for the fifth season of EASY Residency, with the second half of the program taking place in Thailand. The deadline for applications is September 21 at 23:59 (GMT-7).

The program lasts ten weeks: the first five weeks can be completed online, focusing on growth co-creation with investors, recruitment, financing, and mechanism design; the last five weeks will involve all participants living together in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with workshops, one-on-one mentoring, and community activities culminating in a demo day. Accommodation, meals, and dedicated workspaces during the stay in Thailand are fully covered, and visa assistance is provided by the organization, while airfare is self-funded. The batch size is intentionally kept small. The organization claims to have run four seasons and has supported over 100 startups cumulatively.

Selected teams can receive up to $500,000: $150,000 for 5% equity via SAFE, plus an additional $350,000 with no cap via SAFE. All accepted founders can also apply for an additional SAFE of up to $2 million with no cap from a token aggregation platform that connects with mainstream foundational models. Support includes allocations from partners like AWS and CertiK. The original "Most Valuable Builder" channel from BNB Chain has been integrated into this residency, allowing participants to receive funding, courses, technical support, and listing assistance from both YZi Labs and BNB Chain.

Priority areas include programmable capital and on-chain markets, stablecoin payment infrastructure, AI infrastructure and computing economy, trusted agents and embodied intelligence, emerging AI interfaces and consumer layers, as well as AI cross-biological and programmable sciences. YZi Labs was renamed from Binance Labs in January 2025, managing assets exceeding $10 billion, with a portfolio of over 300 projects across more than 25 countries, including Trust Wallet, CoinMarketCap, Polygon, Injective, Ethena, SafePal, etc.; over 65 portfolio companies have gone through incubation. Managing Partner Ella Zhang leads the initiative, with Changpeng Zhao and Binance co-founder Yi He joining as mentors and brand ambassadors. The fourth season held its offline segment in the Gallep Mindfulness City in Bhutan, while the first season's demo day took place at the New York Stock Exchange.

The buy-side aims to relocate early teams to low-cost residency locations, locking in equity with SAFE, while the sell-side consists of founders willing to leave their original locations for five weeks, exchanging equity for accommodation and demo day participation. Funds flow from family offices and token platform allocations into Thai workspaces, connecting with global investors on demo day. Beneficiaries include YZi Labs, which can turn the residency into a project acquisition funnel, and the cost structure that rotates locations from New York, the Bay Area, and Bhutan to Chiang Mai; the pressure is on teams that must self-fund airfare, accept a 5% priced SAFE, and compete in small batches for selection.

Source: Public Information