INTERVIEW: Here's how SolRazr plans to do for Solana what Alchemy did for Ethereum with $1.5 million in its pocket

• SolRazr, a crypto startup based out of India, plans to build the first-ever developer ecosystem around the Solana blockchain.
• In its seed funding round, the venture platform raised $1.5 million from investors like Moonrock Capital, Ascensive Assets, and Morningstar Ventures.
• In an exclusive interview with Business Insider India, the co-founders explain how they plan to take Solana-based decentralised applications (DApps) to the next level by launching a university, hiring new talents and pushing on sales.

Solana may be the next big ‘smart contract’ blockchain with its tokens having nearly quadrupled in value during August. Investors can pump in money, but developers to drive innovation and develop use cases are few and far in between — venture platform SolRazr, based out of India’s Silicon Valley, plans to change the status quo.

The startup just raised $1.5 million in seed funding for the promise of setting up the world’s first developer ecosystem for Solana. The company will take in projects being built on the Solana blockchain and help them find capital, provide them with developer tools as well as get them off the ground.

“It’s kind of like Alchemy for Ethereum,” one of the co-founders, Sreekant Kalapur, told Business Insider India in an exclusive interview. Alchemy, based out of the US, helps burgeoning enterprises build reliable DApps by providing the ‘fundamental building blocks’ to harness the potential of Solana's biggest competitor, the Ethereum blockchain.


Funding was led by blockchain advisory firm Moonrock Capital, Ascensive Assets, and Morningstar Ventures.

Angel investors including Frax Finance’s Sam Kazemian, a decentralised stablecoin cryptocurrency protocol, and the inventor of flash loans, Leo Cheng were also in the mix. The startup managed to attract 14 backers overall.

On the road to building an ecosystem around Solana, the company’s first move is going to be to launch a university within the next couple of weeks. “We plan to bring in developers and experts to teach coders about the Solana blockchain. This will help developers quickly learn Rust and help them deploy Solana programs faster,” disclosed Vijay Kalangi, SolRazr’s other co-founder.

SolRazr’s Solana University

The company plans to launch a university — dubbed the Solana University — to educate and train developers about the Solana blockchain. “There isn’t any shortage of talent in India. We have some very good engineers,” explained Kalangi.

The company plans to bring in experts on Solana to teach, increase awareness, and provide inputs to those starting out or just looking to up their game.

Putting the ‘soul’ into Solana DApps to drive crypto adoption and sales

A part of the $1.5 million seed fund will go towards SolRazr hiring more developers, bringing in community managers, and onboarding business development experts.

“We want to focus on design-first applications. And, we want to provide developer tools, which allow the code to be written in plain English and is easy to interact with,” Kalangi.

His primary complaint right now is that a lot of DApps out there are clunky and far from being user friendly. Going design-first ensures that the Solana-based DApps are user-first in order, which, in turn, will drive adoption.

That is why another key role that they’re looking at is public sales. While the larger goal goes beyond money, there’s no denying its importance especially since, as a launchpad, acquiring capital is a part of SolRazr’s diktat.

SolRazr is jumping on NFTs and cautious of DeFis

The startup is still in the process of finalising which projects that will be nurtured under its umbrella but three big categories it’s focusing on are decentralised finance (DeFi), NFTs and Web 3.0.

An NFT-focused solution is most likely first on its list, according to the founders. However, negotiations are still ongoing. And, while the DeFi space is an attractive opportunity, SolRazr is taking things one step at a time given that India is still in the regulatory grey zone when it comes to crypto.

Solana quadrupled in value during August

There are currently over 400 projects within the Solana ecosystem globally — from decentralised exchanges (DEXs) like LunaDEX to digital games like Stardust.

The cryptocurrency has been grabbing headlines with its massive jump in value during the last month. It quadrupled in value during August to hit a market capitalisation of $30 billion alongside the hype around NFTs. Platforms like OpenSea as well as projects like CryptoPunks, Mutant Apes, and others were seen hitting record levels.

Even as the crypto market crashed on September 7 — deemed ‘Bitcoin Day’ in celebration of El Salvador becoming the first country in the world to declare Bitcoin as legal tender — Solana was among the few to preserve.

As of 10:30am Indian Standard Time (IST), Solana’s price is at $207.33, having recuperated from the minor hit in the took of around 2% during the dip to being 20% in the green. And, its market capitalisation is at a whopping $61.33 billion — ranked as the sixth biggest player in the crypto market, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Remember, remember the 7th of September — Bitcoin, El Salvador, and the crypto drop