The Nailwal Fellowship, an initiative founded by Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, has opened its application process for its 2024 cohort. The fellowship aims to support the brightest minds in the web3 space by providing them with financial support, mentorship, and comprehensive resources to explore innovative web3 ideas and develop new crypto projects or startups.
Sandeep Nailwal is an Indian entrepreneur, software developer, and blockchain expert, but he’s perhaps best known for co-founding Polygon in 2017, which was initially known as Matic Network.
Polygon, a Layer 2 scaling solution, has grown into one of the most influential platforms in the blockchain ecosystem, offering scalable and user-friendly solutions for decentralized applications. Nailwal’s leadership and vision have been instrumental in Polygon’s evolution, making it a cornerstone of the web3 landscape.
The Nailwal Fellowship Program
Nailwal launched the inaugural Nailwal Fellowship last year, when 8 fellows received $50,000 each as well as a wealth of technical support, mentorship and networking opportunities to help get their innovative ideas off the ground.
Last year’s winners of the inaugural fellowship were:
- Adam Achebe: A Stanford Computer Science undergraduate focusing on liquidity challenges in the commodities industry.
- Ananya Kandelwal: An Indian student creating new payment rails for global commerce.
- Evgenii Danilenko: An Ethereum Foundation core developer working on advanced cross-chain infrastructure.
- Joe Frazier: Former CTO of an NFT aggregator building new data indexing infrastructure.
- J Paul Meyer: An ex-Goldman Sachs employee and Harvard graduate developing on-chain financial products.
- Remi Gai: A repeat founder working on a new layer 1 solution using homomorphic encryption.
- Shashank Yadav: An IIT Masters student and ML Engineer at Goldman Sachs creating a marketplace for AI data.
- Tomas Taylor: An HBS graduate and former Dapper Labs employee developing an open platform for AI agents
Applications now open
Applications for the 2024 cohort are now open, with a deadline of 22nd July 2024.
This year’s fellowship will again offer each of the chosen fellows a $50,000 grant, technical resources and support, mentorship, and access to a network of industry leaders and investors through Symbolic Capital, a venture capital firm Nailwal co-founded.
This support is designed to allow fellows to dedicate six months entirely to their projects, fostering innovation in the web3 space.
With a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, the fellowship is actively working to recruit more female applicants, addressing the gender imbalance in the web3 sector. By collaborating with organizations like SheFi and H.E.R. DAO, it aims to create a more inclusive environment for future cohorts.