Colosseum, a company that sets up hackathons for the Solana ecosystem, raised $60 million.
The company has already deployed $2.75 million to 11 different companies.

Colosseum, the recently launched startup accelerator that organizes hackathons for the Solana ecosystem, raised $60 million for a fund that will invest in early-stage projects, the company announced Tuesday.

The fund, which was oversubscribed, will focus on pre-seed investments in selected startups from the winners of Solana Hackathons. "It's evident that there is a market demand for novel, specialized venture products in crypto, and we are excited to have a diverse group of investors, including ecosystem founders and hackathon alumni, alongside us to realize our vision for Colosseum," said Clay Robbins, co-founder of Colosseum, in a statement.

When asked about what attracted investors to the fund, given the large sum of money that Colosseum raised, Robbins said, "many of Colosseum’s LPs are agnostic to ecosystem but believe in the team’s immediate thesis that the Solana ecosystem has the most potential. Institutional LPs invest with both the current focus on the future in mind for what the model can become – so not necessarily a fund focused on one ecosystem, but more so this model."

The accelerator sees hackathons – events where developers and founders come together to innovate – as the "crucible" for crypto innovation and company formation. According to the statement, it hosted its first Solana hackathon earlier this year, which attracted over 8,000 participants.

“Our hackathons are designed to level the playing field for builders globally to experiment with crypto product development and launch onchain startups,” explained Matty Taylor, co-founder of Colosseum and former head of growth of Solana Foundation.

Colosseum has funded 11 companies and deployed $2.75 million so far, Robbins added.

Among the investors, Bonk DAO – a 12-person council of Solana power brokers who manage $124 million worth of BONK token – said earlier this year that it plans to invest $500,000 in the fund.

CORRECTION (June 6, 13:45 UTC): Corrects to say the fund deployed $250k to eleven companies each, making the total investment $2.75 million.

Solana Solana Foundation Hackathon fund

Aoyon Ashraf

Aoyon Ashraf is CoinDesk's managing editor for Breaking News. He spent almost a decade at Bloomberg covering equities, commodities and tech. Prior to that, he spent several years on the sellside, financing small-cap companies. Aoyon graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in mining engineering. He holds ETH and BTC, as well as ALGO, ADA, SOL, OP and some other altcoins which are below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.