A venture-capital fund managed by Colosseum, which recently took over Solana Foundation’s hackathon program, has raised $60 million to make early-stage investments in select winners of engineering and product-design competitions. Solana aims to attract new developers to its blockchain as it currently lags behind Ethereum in terms of developer numbers. The new approach by Solana could help bridge this gap and offer investors the opportunity for early-stage funding of promising projects.
Colosseum’s fund, known as Fund I, will be making pre-seed investments in select Solana-based projects that have been declared winners of their hackathon program and entered a follow-on accelerator program. These investments are meant to support projects in categories such as gaming, decentralized finance, and decentralized physical infrastructure. The goal is to grow on-chain projects and expand the Solana ecosystem by cultivating early-stage projects during a funding drought.
The Solana Foundation is one of the fund’s largest limited partners, along with other institutional investors, some of whom are new to cryptocurrency. While the fund is dedicated to investing in the Solana ecosystem, Colosseum’s model of combining hackathons with an accelerator and fund can support the development and growth of any early-stage technology. Solana tokens are currently trading at $127.60 and the blockchain is favored by investors such as former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Venture-capital interest in cryptocurrency has dropped from the highs of the 2021 and early 2022 bull market but is showing signs of recovery. Despite this, investments in the application layer have been relatively low, prompting Colosseum to focus on underwriting programs that drive demand for infrastructure. Hackathons and accelerator programs are effective in sponsoring blockchain ecosystem development, as demonstrated by the high number of developers and projects submitted in Colosseum’s recent hackathon.
Colosseum’s first hackathon, held in March and April, attracted 8,000 developers from nearly 100 countries, with over 1,000 projects submitted. Winners of the hackathon included projects such as a new digital currency mined via a proof-of-work algorithm, a marketplace for trading tweets, and a Solana client to boost transaction capacity and yield. The winners received cash prizes ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 in USDC.
By combining their efforts with the Solana Foundation’s previous hackathons, Colosseum estimates that over 60,000 individuals have competed and raised over $600 million for their projects. Founders who participated in the accelerator program will have the opportunity to present their projects at Colosseum’s first demo day on Thursday, marking a significant milestone in the development of the Solana ecosystem.
