Polygon Ventures

May 23, 2023

“We actually didn't originally intend to raise capital," said Watts. "We were planning to sort of bootstrap the whole way ... Then we were approached by Multicoin Capital, and they actually pitched us a few ideas that we thought were really fascinating," he continued. "We realized that by working with them, and by raising capital, we could actually become much larger than we had originally been planning.” The talks with Multicoin started in late August of last year, when FastLane didn’t have a corporation or even a pitch deck to show investors, Watts said. The long fundraise period gave the FastLane legal team time to get the infrastructure in place. Other participants in the round included Polygon Ventures, Shima Capital, Delphi Ventures and Everstake Ventures, a41 Ventures and Symbolic Capital, the venture capital fund from Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. Multicoin Capital made its first MEV-related investment in Sept. 2021 leading the $17.4 million round for Eden Network, multi-chain infrastructure for reducing the negative impacts of MEV on a network. The firm then co-led a $10 million round last August for Jito Labs, an infrastructure provider focused on Solana-based MEV. “As DeFi on Polygon continues to blossom we expect more MEV opportunities to emerge," said Shayon Sengupta, investment partner at Multicoin Capital, in a statement. "Polygon FastLane today represents the best way to get exposure to DeFi activity within the Polygon ecosystem ... MEV protocols do more than create additional revenue streams for validators; they are now critical infrastructure that helps maintain the stability and usability of any given network.” Edited by Stephen Alpher. DISCLOSURE