Polygon spin-off Miden raises $25 million in seed funding for privacy-focused blockchain

Miden, a zero-knowledge rollup project originally developed under Polygon Labs, has spun out as an independent entity and raised $25 million in seed funding for its new privacy-focused blockchain, Edge.

The seed round was co-led by a16z crypto, 1kx and Hack VC, with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 Ventures, Delta Fund and MH Ventures, Miden said Tuesday. Angel investors, including Rune Christensen from Sky (formerly MakerDAO), Avery Ching from Aptos and Sreeram Kannan from EigenLayer, also joined the round.

The spin-off was finalized on March 31, Miden co-founder Azeem Khan told The Block. Miden is the third project to spin off from Polygon, following Avail and Privado ID. Khan said Miden needed independence as Polygon focuses on the newly announced AggLayer Breakout Program and a broader shift to an incubation model. “Additionally, launching a Miden token will give us the resources needed to build an ecosystem of projects and infrastructure providers centered around the Edge blockchain paradigm,” Khan said.

“As a standout graduate of the Agglayer Breakout Program — a fast-track incubator — Miden has moved fast and executed even faster,” Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said in a statement. “It plans to airdrop around 10% of its native token to POL holders and stakers, directly rewarding the ecosystem that helped it grow.”

Miden began fundraising for its seed round last November, with most commitments secured by January, and the round officially closed a few weeks ago, Khan said. The round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, with a 2:1 equity-to-token ratio, he added. Khan declined to disclose Miden’s post-money valuation.

As part of the deal, the co-lead investors — a16z crypto, 1kx and Hack VC — have each taken board observer seats at Miden, Khan said.

What is Miden?

Miden is a zero-knowledge proof-based blockchain aimed at enabling scalable, privacy-preserving applications.

While several privacy-focused blockchains, such as Aztec Network, Namada and Nillion, exist, many have struggled to gain significant traction. When asked about this, Khan said previous privacy blockchains often compromised on performance, programmability or user experience. In contrast, scalability-focused blockchains have typically sacrificed privacy. Miden aims to deliver all three through the use of ZK technology and “edge devices” or “client-side” devices, he said.

“Edge devices are devices that do not directly participate in the network (i.e., not nodes, validators, or block producers). These could be user wallets or computers/servers managing specific applications,” Khan said. Processing data locally on client-side devices is designed to make blockchain systems faster, more private and more decentralized.

“The reality is that no existing blockchain is ready for mass adoption,” claimed Bobbin Threadbare, another co-founder of Miden. “They either don’t scale, lack privacy, are hard to build on, or compromise the core principles of web3 like self-custody and censorship resistance. However, with the advent of ZK technology, we can reimagine blockchain architecture and move both state and execution to the edge devices (i.e., the client side).” Dominik Schmid is Miden’s third co-founder.

Miden mainnet and token launch timeline

Miden has been in development since 2022 and is currently in its final alpha testnet phase. Khan said the mainnet launch is planned for the fourth quarter of this year.

He added that the Miden token will launch alongside the mainnet, as it will be essential for various fee components within the network.

For ecosystem growth, Miden plans to work closely with developers in its initial cohort to help them succeed. “These builders need help when it comes to media, venture funds, angel investors, navigating centralized exchanges, market makers, introductions to protocols for initial business development, among other things,” Khan said. “And that’s where we plan to emphasize support. Very much so white-glove in that way.”

A number of projects are already building on Miden. “Some projects are in stealth, but we have Arcane Finance building a compliant mixer, Composability Labs, and one other project building a DarkPool, Pragma building our oracle, and are experimenting with a perpetual exchange,” Khan said.

Initially, Miden will focus on use cases like asset and treasury management, over-the-counter trading, and partnerships with trading desks that require privacy, according to Khan.

“Our longer-term focus will be on large financial institutions, governments and nation-states,” he added. “The ability to have a private yet compliant blockchain that is scalable and decentralized is a major win for those we are targeting.”

Miden currently has a 17-person team, most of whom transitioned from Polygon, with a few new hires, Khan said. He added that the team plans to expand selectively based on future needs.

“Spinning out of Polygon Labs is a natural next step,” Nailwal said. “With ambitions to rival Solana, Sui, and Aptos — and to be the epicenter of cross-chain liquidity for Agglayer as a native chain and help grow the Agglayer ecosystem — building independently naturally positions Miden to attract the capital and focus needed to compete at the highest level.”

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