The PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator has announced its first cohort of 31 start-ups on Monday. The accelarator programme, which is launched by Web3 firm Polygon in association with the innovation management firm Lumos Labs, aims at supporting and mentoring start-ups working in the Web3 space.
Web3 is often considered the next big thing when it comes to Internet and technology. It is the iteration of the Internet based on blockchain technology, which incorporates concepts such as decentralisation and token-based economics. Since the space is in its nascent stage, start-ups and companies that get a head start now would get the early movers advantage.
The Accelerator’s Incubation partner is Buidlers Tribe and investment partners include CoinDCX, Digital Finance Group, Elevation Capital, Hashed, Jsquare, Jump Capital, Lightspeed, Picus Capital, Sino Global Capital, and Woodstock Fund.
Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder, Polygon said, “At Polygon, we envision an open and borderless world and strive to empower budding developers to build this new world. We look forward to working with the selected startups and continue this journey of building a brighter future for Web3.”
Polygon is an Ethereum scaling solution aiming at providing cheaper transaction fees in the Ethereum blockchain.
Lumos Labs is a Singapore-based innovation management firm that specialises in running technology open innovation programs. Kaavya Prasad, co-founder, Lumos Labs said, “India ranks third in the global list of countries with the largest start-up ecosystems, right after the U.S. and U.K., and it seems like there is no stopping this growth. With this, it becomes important for the new start-ups to enter the ecosystem with all the prerequisites in order to survive. This initiative is focussed on overcoming this barrier.”
The Web3 industry has been expanding rapidly. The NFT markets have surpassed $40 billion valuation in 2021. The addressable market for metaverse is estimated at $8 trillion, and blockchain adoption in capital markets is projected to reach $27 trillion as early as 2027. Asia has been at the forefront of this emerging technology consistently. As the field of applications for blockchain grows, start-ups are continuously contributing to customising and tailoring the technology to fit multiple use cases.
