Ethereum-based blockchain scaling service provider Polygon has raised $450 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global Management and SoftBank with participation from more than 40 major venture capital firms including Galaxy Digital, Galaxy Interactive and Republic Capital, the company said on Monday.
Polygon, which offers an Ethereum infrastructure platform, said it plans to use the funds to consolidate its lead position and pave the way for mass adoption of Web3 applications. The company raised the funds through a private sale of Polygon’s native MATIC token, it said.
The company added that it is building a suite of scaling solutions including Polygon point-of-sale (PoS), Polygon Edge and Polygon Avail, a tool for every possible use case, which is similar to what Amazon Web Services offers to Web2 developers.
“Ethereum, scaled by Polygon, will be the bedrock of this next stage in the Web's evolution. Technological disruption didn't start with Web2, nor is it going to end there. That’s why we are very excited to see some of the same firms that funded the previous round of innovation now being our Web3 vision,” Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, said in a statement.
Scaling allows Ethereum to communicate with multiple blockchains to help decongest networks, and ensure faster transactions.
According to the company, Polygon PoS adoption clocked a billion transactions last year. The network’s more than 130 million unique addresses and over 2.67 million monthly active users now generate some 3 million transactions per day, more than double the volume of Ethereum, Polygon claimed. Polygon added that its native MATIC token has a market capitalization of over $12 billion.
“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. This is an ambitious and aggressive team, one that values innovation at its core. Sequoia Capital India is thrilled to lead this significant financing round,” said Shailesh Lakhani, MD at Sequoia India.
The company in January invested an undisclosed sum in Hike to support its Rush Gaming Universe (RGU).
Investors including Alan Howard, Co-founder, Brevan Howard and Kevin O’Leary participated in the funding round, according to Polygon. Alameda Research, Transcend Fund, Makers Fund, Animoca Brands, games industry investor Scopely, Third Point, dune ventures, Union Square Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Elevation Capital, Sino Global Capital, DCG, Standard Crypto, Celsius, Dragonfly Capital, Variant Fund, Blue Pool Capital, WorkPlay Ventures, led by Zynga founder Mark Pincus, also participated in the funding round.
