Polygon Technology, the India-based company behind Ethereum’s side-chain scaling solution (Polygon), has raised $450 million in a recently concluded funding round. According to Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, the fresh capital will be dedicated to building larger developer ecosystems in several markets.
“We wanted to have at least three to five years of well-cushioned runway for them.” The startup, which maintains a $100 million ecosystem fund, will use the $450 million to support and broaden such efforts, Nailwal stated.
The Polygon network offers a low-cost, high-speed platform for building and utilizing decentralized applications. The project has seen increased adoption in recent times, especially as gas fees have scared the average blockchain user from transacting on the Ethereum mainnet.
The latest funding round is the first of its kind by Polygon. It was led by Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm in India. Stating the reasons for the company’s involvement in the round, Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director at Sequoia India, said:
The platform of choice to build on the blockchain today is Polygon. Thousands of developers across a range of applications are choosing Polygon and their complete set of scaling solutions for the Ethereum ecosystem.
The funding round also saw participation from other high-profile blockchain and crypto-focused venture capital firms, including Tiger Global, SoftBank, Galaxy Digital, Republic Capital, Makers Fund, Alameda Research, Alan Howard, Steadview Capital, Elevation Capital, Animoca Brands, Spartan Fund, Dragonfly Capital, Sino Global Capital and others.
Polygon Finally Attracts Institutional Flock
The number of firms involved in the latest funding round is noteworthy, seeing the company start with no backing from institutional investors. In fact, it further confirms Nailwal’s recent statement about venture capital firms wagering to get on board the project due to Polygon’s impressive performance in the past few years.
“We never had any VCs backing us…Now, VCs are first flocking to Polygon and want to invest money,” the co-founder concluded.
Buoyed by the latest raise, Polygon’s native token (MATIC) has recorded a significant 18% increase on the day, and now boasts a $15 billion market cap.
