The first cohort of the Nailwal Fellowship, founded by Polygon Co-Founder and Symbolic Capital Founding Partner Sandeep Nailwal, has concluded, with fellows establishing companies and raising funds from prominent venture capital firms such as 1kx, a16z, and Symbolic Capital.

The Nailwal Fellowship, designed to support emerging web3 entrepreneurs, celebrates the successful completion of its first cohort. Over the past six months, these founders have secured funding from top-tier venture capital firms, joined leading accelerators, and landed roles at prominent crypto protocols and companies.

Sandeep Nailwal expressed his admiration for the cohort's achievements, stating, "I am thrilled with the success of our first cohort. Our fellows have shown that with the right resources and support, there are no limits to what can be accomplished in the web3 space." Looking ahead, Nailwal added, "This is just the beginning. I'm excited to continue supporting exceptional talent ready to explore the vast potential of blockchain technology in our next cohort."

Graduates of the Nailwal Fellowship have joined top startup accelerators and fellowship programs, including Beacon and a16z CSX, and have become key contributors to leading projects in the web3 space:

Remi Gai, co-founder of Inco Network, is developing privacy infrastructure for web3, drawing on his experience at Parallel Finance and Google. Inco Network secured a $4.5M seed round from investors including 1kx, GSR, Robot Ventures, and Symbolic Capital.

Shashank Yadav founded Fraction AI, which aims to democratize high-quality data for AI models, using a decentralized approach to improve data accessibility. After being accepted into Cohort F23 of the Beacon Accelerator program, Yadav and the Fraction AI team successfully launched their project and are now closing a $2M seed round.

J.Paul Meyer, formerly of Goldman Sachs, founded Collar Protocol, aiming to revolutionize borrowing protocols in DeFi. Meyer and the Collar team were recently accepted into the Spring 2024 cohort of a16z's Crypto Startup Accelerator in London.

Tomas Taylor, a web3 full-stack developer, launched Mindware, an AI agent API key with SHA-256 encryption for human authentication, during the fellowship.

Evgenii Danilenko, a key figure in the Ethereum ecosystem, refined his vision for a new approach to blockchain interoperability during the fellowship.

Joe Frazier, an expert in integrating on-chain data with AI, joined the core team at Allium Labs, where he is helping build the next generation of web3 data infrastructure.

Ananya Khandelwal, a top student in India, continued his work on Flex Wallet to make crypto payments more accessible.

Adam Achebe left Stanford to focus on building Arctail, redefining the live-streaming space with a new approach to eSports betting.

These achievements highlight the potential of individual founders and the importance of supportive programs in advancing technology and entrepreneurship. For more information about the Nailwal Fellows Program and its mission to empower the next generation of web3 innovators, visit https://www.nailwalfellowship.org/