The Nailwal Fellowship’s first-ever Cohort concluded with Fellows founding companies and raising from 1kx, a16z, Symbolic Capital, and more leading funds.
The Nailwal Fellowship, launched by Co-Founder of Polygon and Founding Partner at Symbolic Capital, Sandeep Nailwal, marks a significant milestone today as it celebrates the graduation of its inaugural cohort. This program, created to empower the next generation of web3 entrepreneurs, has exceeded expectations by fostering a group of founders who in just six months have raised from T1 venture funds, been admitted to top accelerators in the industry, and landed full time roles at leading crypto protocols and companies.
Speaking on the success of the first cohort, Nailwal remarked, “I have been so impressed with the success of this inaugural cohort. Our fellows have demonstrated that with the right support and resources, there are no limits to what can be achieved in the web3 space.” Looking to the future, he continued, “This is just the beginning. With our next cohort, I’m so excited to continue supporting exceptional talent who are ready to explore the vast possibilities within blockchain.”
The Nailwal Fellows have not only joined top startup accelerators and other fellowship programs such as Beacon and a16z CSX, but have also become core members of leading projects in the space:
- Remi Gai’s startup Inco Network is pioneering privacy infrastructure in web3, leveraging his experience from Parallel Finance and Google. Gai’s venture secured a $4.5M seed round from investors 1kx, GSR, Robot Ventures, and Symbolic Capital.
- Shashank Yadav founded Fraction AI which aims to democratize high-quality data for AI models, revolutionizing data accessibility with a decentralized approach. After having been accepted into Cohort F23 of the Beacon Accelerator program, Yadav and the Fraction AI team successfully debuted their project in a demo day packed with investors and are now closing a $2M seed round.
- J.Paul Meyer transitioned from Goldman Sachs to founding Collar Protocol, aiming to pioneer the next wave of DeFi through reimagining borrowing protocols. Recently, Meyer and the Collar team were accepted into the Spring 2024 cohort for a16z’s Crypto Startup Accelerator in London.
- Tomas Taylor, a crypto-native full-stack developer, has passionately worked on merging web3 technologies with AI. As a Nailwal Fellow, Taylor launched Mindware, an AI agent API key with SHA-256 encryption techniques for human authentication.
- Evgenii Danilenko was a cornerstone in the Ethereum ecosystem with prior work on Erigon and Polygon. During the Fellowship, Evgenii continued to refine his vision and architecture for a new approach to blockchain interoperability.
- Joe Frazier is at the cutting edge of integrating on-chain data with AI, driving forward the capabilities of blockchain technology and data. Now, Frazier is part of the core team at Kleiner Perkins-backed Allium Labs, where he is helping build the next generation of web3 data infrastructure.
- Ananya Khandelwal, a top .01% student in India, continued his work on Flex Wallet to make crypto payments more accessible to everyone.
- Adam Achebe left Stanford to commit full-time to building Arctail. After extensive user research, Adam is redefining the live-streaming space with a new outlook on eSports betting.
The achievements of this inaugural cohort not only highlight the potential of individual founders but also underscore the importance of supportive programs in the advancement of technology and entrepreneurship.
For more information on the Nailwal Fellows Program and its mission to empower the next generation of web3 innovators, please visit https://www.nailwalfellowship.org/.
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