Sequoia Capital India, a subsidiary of Menlo Park-headquartered venture capital behemoth, has stepped up its Web3 game by leading a massive $450 million fundraising round of Ethereum scaling platform Polygon, reports TechCrunch.
Other participants include Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and quantitative trading firm Alameda Research.
In December, TechCrunch reported that some major VC investors discussed backing, citing unnamed sources.
Sequoia’s aggressive bet on crypto comes after its major rival Andreessen Horowitz announced a $4.5 billion fund to support Web3 projects.
According to data provided by CoinMarketCap, Polygon (MATIC), the native token of the popular Layer 2 scaling solution, is up about 15% in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency saw astonishing growth in 2021, rising by over 12,700%.
The Ethereum blockchain suffers from high fees, which is something that many competing Layer 1 blockchain protocols are trying to capitalize on. Polygon acts as a secondary scaling solution, meaning it runs alongside the main blockchain, helping to expand its range by unclogged the network.The polygon scaling uses an array of solutions, such as midden and nightfall, to reach a sufficient level.
Originally known as Matic Network, the project underwent a rebrand last February in a move that would allow it to compete with Polkadot.
In early December, MATIC enhanced its scaling capabilities by acquiring a zero-knowledge start-up called Mir for $400 million worth.
According to data provided by DeFi Lama, the total value locked in the Polygon-based protocol is about $5.3 billion.