Sandeep Nailwal
About Sandeep Nailwal
Sandeep Nailwal is a co-founder of Polygon, the Ethereum scaling network that began as Matic Network. Crunchbase lists him as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Polygon, based in the United States. NFX Signal describes him as Co-founder and COO of Polygon, so his title varies by source. Crunchbase also lists an earlier role as co-founder and CEO of Scopeweaver, and says he attended the Indian Institute of Management.
Press profiles say he was born in 1987 to a farming family in Ramnagar, Nainital, and that the family later moved to Delhi. He moved into blockchain from software and entrepreneurship, and Polygon became one of the better-known Web3 companies to come out of India.
In 2024 he moved into AI as a co-founder of Sentient, an open-source, decentralized AI platform. Sentient raised an $85 million seed round co-led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures. Other reports name Princeton professor Pramod Viswanath and IISc professor Himanshu Tyagi as co-founders.
Nailwal invests as an individual angel, mostly in crypto and Web3 projects. The Crunchbase count in Lounge's data is 71 investments, with 0 exits and 0 companies founded. The public Crunchbase page showed a higher figure (121 investments, 118 portfolio companies) when we checked, so counts differ by snapshot. Cryptorank lists 138 investments and classes him as a tier 1 angel investor. Treat these totals as approximate.
Crunchbase records him in rounds including Self Protocol (seed), RedStone (seed), D3 (Series A), ZKX (seed), Electron (seed), 0G (seed) and a Sweatcoin token sale. Cryptorank lists Tria as a $12 million pre-seed round. NFX Signal ranks him in Web3/Blockchain and Web3/Crypto at pre-seed and seed, and in FinTech at pre-seed and seed. It also links a TechCrunch headline about a $50 million Web3 venture fund raised by the Polygon founder. We did not verify the details of that fund.
Crunchbase shows 14 AI investments since 2023. Most are in decentralized AI, AI infrastructure and compute, and projects that combine AI with blockchain.
Rounds Crunchbase lists on his activity timeline, with the date of each round: Sahara AI (March 5, 2024), Mira (July 16, 2024), Hyperbolic (November 26, 2024) and Fraction AI (December 18, 2024).
Press and company announcements give some detail. Sahara AI's $6 million seed in March 2024 was led by Polychain Capital, and Nailwal is named among the participants. Hyperbolic's $7 million seed was led by Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction, and the company says it built the round for affordable AI infrastructure. A third-party post describes OpenLedger as founded in 2024 under the name OpenDB, with an $8 million seed that included Nailwal.
The full AI list from Crunchbase is Mira, Prodia, Inference Labs, Talus Network, Prime Intellect, OpenLedger, Lattica, Play AI, OpenGradient, Fraction AI, Hyperbolic and Sahara AI.
The sources point to pre-seed and seed rounds, usually alongside crypto-native funds such as Polychain Capital. NFX Signal lists his focus as Web3/Blockchain, Web3/Crypto and FinTech at pre-seed and seed. In AI, his recorded investments concentrate on decentralized AI, verification, data and model attribution, and compute infrastructure.
NFX Signal gives a check range of $10K to $500K with a $200K sweet spot. That is an investor-database listing, not a statement from Nailwal, so confirm it with him directly. We found no public statement from him setting out a thesis or check size for AI deals. His location is the United States on Crunchbase and Dubai on NFX, and no geographic restriction on investments is documented.
Founders should note that his AI portfolio leans heavily toward projects with a blockchain or token component. His own AI company, Sentient, is also in the decentralized AI space.
- Sahara AI: AI and crypto platform; participated in its $6M seed led by Polychain Capital, announced March 2024.
- Mira: decentralized AI verification network; Crunchbase records a funding round on July 16, 2024.
- Hyperbolic: AI infrastructure for developers and researchers; invested in its seed round, which Crunchbase dates to November 26, 2024.
- Fraction AI: Crunchbase records a funding round on December 18, 2024 with Anagram and 18 other investors.
- OpenLedger: AI blockchain project, founded in 2024 as OpenDB; named among its seed investors.
- Prodia: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- Inference Labs: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- Talus Network: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- Prime Intellect: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- Lattica: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- Play AI: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- OpenGradient: listed by Crunchbase as part of his AI portfolio.
- crunchbase.com/person/379838f6-5109-44b6-a401-8e90675de962
- crunchbase.com/person/sandeep-nailwal
- crunchbase.com/person/sandeep-nailwal/person_overview_investor/timelin
- signal.nfx.com/investors/sandeep-nailwal
- evalyze.ai/investors/sandeep-nailwal
- theblock.co/post/302983/peter-thiel-founders-fund-sentient-funding-ai-
- inc42.com/buzz/sandeep-nailwals-new-venture-sentient-raises-85-mn-to-t
- news.ventureintelligence.com/others/polygon-co-founder-sandeep-nailwal
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Sandeep Nailwal has made 71 investments according to Crunchbase. 14 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Mira, Prodia, Inference Labs, Talus Network and Prime Intellect.
Sandeep Nailwal appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $6M. The most recent is Multiplier (Seed, $6M, Aug 2026).
Sandeep Nailwal most often invests alongside Lux Capital, General Advance, Rebel Fund and Amino Capital, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Sandeep Nailwal
Who is Sandeep Nailwal?
He is a co-founder of Polygon and a co-founder of the open-source AI project Sentient. He is also an active angel investor in crypto and AI startups, and Crunchbase lists him in the United States.
What AI startups has Sandeep Nailwal invested in?
Crunchbase lists 14 AI investments since 2023. They include Mira, Prodia, Inference Labs, Talus Network, Prime Intellect, OpenLedger, Lattica, Play AI, OpenGradient, Fraction AI, Hyperbolic and Sahara AI.
What check size does Sandeep Nailwal write?
NFX Signal lists a range of $10K to $500K with a $200K sweet spot. This comes from an investor database, not from him, and he has not published a check size for AI deals as far as we found.
What stage does Sandeep Nailwal invest in?
His recorded rounds are mostly pre-seed and seed, often with funds such as Polychain Capital. Some Crunchbase entries are later, such as a Series A in D3.
Does Sandeep Nailwal lead rounds?
Crunchbase data in Lounge shows 0 lead investments, though the public Crunchbase page tags him as lead investor on at least one round, RedStone. Most of his AI deals appear as participation in rounds led by crypto funds.
Is Sandeep Nailwal a good fit for my AI startup?
His AI portfolio centers on decentralized AI, AI infrastructure and projects that combine AI with blockchain. Startups in those areas have the clearest overlap with what he has backed.
Is Sandeep Nailwal an angel investor?
Yes. Sandeep Nailwal invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 71 investments.
What AI companies has Sandeep Nailwal invested in?
Sandeep Nailwal's AI investments include Mira, Prodia, Inference Labs, Talus Network, Prime Intellect, OpenLedger, Lattica and Play AI. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Sandeep Nailwal based?
Sandeep Nailwal is based in United States.
What stage does Sandeep Nailwal invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Sandeep Nailwal has invested at Seed, with a median round of $6M.