Polygon’s US$450m raise sees no shortage of takers

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Hello reader,

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be on a plane to Melbourne for my first overseas trip of the 2020s.

As I write this, I’m partly excited to finally be taking a real vacation but also extremely nervous that I’m missing one or some of the many documents I need for traveling – there’s so much more to prep before a flight now than before the pandemic.

Speaking of “so much more,” Polygon, an India-based Ethereum scaling platform, raised US$450 million in strategic funding from a whopping 36 investors this week. This is also the first time I’ve had to write such a long blurb since I’ve started doing this newsletter (see below).

Image credit: Timmy Loen

You can find all the other important investment deals that happened in the last few days in our weekly funding news wrap-up.

Let’s dive into the biggest deals and M&As that recently lit up the space.

The biggest deals by country

🇮🇳 Polygon Technology: The India-based Ethereum scaling platform raised US$450 million in strategic investments led by Sequoia Capital India, with Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Galaxy Digital/Galaxy Interactive participating. Other investors in this round include Tiger Global, Republic Capital, Makers Fund, Scopely, Sangha Capital, Sino Global Capital, CoinFund, Alan Howard, Alameda Research, DCG, Bitfinex, Celsius, Seven Seven Six, Transcend Fund, WorkPlay Ventures (Mark Pincus), Third Point, Blue Pool Capital, Accel Partners, Steadview Capital, Finality Capital Partners, Unacademy, Elevation Capital, Sound Ventures, Animoca Brands, Ghaf Capital, Dune Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Voodoo, Dragonfly Capital, Spartan Group, Variant Fund, Standard Crypto, and Kevin O’Leary.

🇸🇬 Tonik: The Singapore-headquartered neobank bagged US$131 million in series B money from Alpha JWC Ventures, Blauwpark Capital, Citius, Insignia Ventures Partners, Kraft Group, Mizuho Bank, Nuri Group, Point72 Ventures, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sixteenth Street Capital, and iGlobe Partners.

🇨🇳 Hongsong Class: The Chinese social media platform secured US$100 million in a series A+ round from Bertelsmann Asia Investments, BlueRun Ventures, China Creation Ventures, Matrix Partners China.

Lists of most active investors in the region