Polygon Community Grants Program Announces Season 2 with 35M POL and AI Leading the Pack

From AI swarms to memecoin royales, leaders in Blockchain x AI join forces with the Community Treasury to dramatically expand founder support

Polygon Labs

January 14, 2025

tl;dr

Builders get grants when they need them, not after
Independent Grant Allocators, including Eliza Labs (ai16z), Crossmint, IoTeX, Thrive, and Gitcoin, will grant millions in POL to Polygon projects
Themes include multiple AI tracks, DePIN, and Memecoins
Direct Grant Track bigger than ever

Hello, dawn of a new day: Season 2 of the Polygon Community Grants Program (CGP) is live, with 35M in POL grants.

Don’t wait: Apply before April 15, 2025!

The grants program, overseen by the Community Treasury Board, nurtures a vibrant community of builders and breakout projects. Season 1 of the CGP received 1000+ applications, awarding 18M POL to more than 120 projects.

Now entering Season 2, the Community Treasury Board has voted to double down on Grant Allocators (GA) and dramatically expand the scope of who can apply.

Effectively, this brings grant decentralization through friends: Independent GAs, led by breakouts such as Eliza Labs (ai16z), Crossmint, IoTeX, Thrive, and Gitcoin, will sniff out the best projects and dish out millions in POL. And more GAs are on the way.

Grants get builders to their next big milestone, with support and funding before and during the process of making something cool.

Read on to learn how.

Grant Allocators take center stage to fund AI, DePIN, and memecoin projects

If you’re working at the intersection of AI and Web3, the CGP Grant Allocators want to hear from you as soon as humanly (inhumanly?) possible.

Independent GAs will be responsible for distributing up to 15M POL across three key themes in S2:

AI agents, apps, and infra
DePIN
Memecoins, memecoins, memecoins

Decentralized grant funding gives industry leaders the power to flex their expertise. Each GA comes with experience uniquely suited to empower the best builders on Polygon.

Grants are awarded with long-termism in mind, as opposed to chasing short-term wins. That means finding builders working on something so ambitious and fresh that it’s not yet trendy.

But themed tracks aren’t the only way to get your project funded.

Direct track: focused on quality, not categories

With up to 20M POL in funding available, the Direct Track is the largest it’s ever been—designed for builders with ideas that don’t fit into predefined themes.

Crafting a consumer application with cross-chain UX? Direct Track.

A wicked game that doesn’t fit in the other categories? Direct Track.

RWA experiments? Direct Track. Experimental IRL developer co-op? You get the idea.

The Community Treasury Board oversees the Direct Track to support high quality projects in any category, and Season 2 is open to all Polygon builders as well as those migrating from other chains. No matter what you're building, if it has the potential to push the ecosystem forward, there’s a path for you here.

Who this is for: All Polygon builders and those migrating from other chains
Requirements: Ready to hit the next milestone and accelerate the ecosystem alongside other breakouts
When: Applications from Jan 14 to Apr 15
Review Process: Applications will be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis.

Head to the Grants homepage and hit “Direct Track” to start your application.

Join the community that helps builders break out

There’s a reason 2024’s breakout crypto moments happened on Polygon: Founders don’t just find funding—they get help to build, launch, and scale.

The Polygon Founder Community is more than a source of funding. It’s a network of dedicated support channels, resources to accelerate growth, and programs to get real users and feedback faster, all designed to help you hit your milestones and stand out from the crowd.

Dedicated Telegram and Discord channels to connect with other founders and get real-time support
Access to distribution, marketing, and social opportunities to amplify your project
Vouchers and discounts for essential infrastructure and tools
Experimental programs to get your first users, hands-on testing, and fast feedback

Working on an application? Already applied? Join the Founder Community Discord for help and ideas direct from other founders.