Anurag Arjun is a Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Polygon, a leading Ethereum scaling solution. Led by Arjun along with Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Mihailo Bjelic, Polygon grew from $26 million in market capitalization in 2019 to over $14 billion in 2021. ^[14]

In addition to his pivotal role at Polygon, Anurag Arjun founded Avail, which was officially launched on July 24, 2024. ^[1][4][9]

Education

In 2006, Arjun received a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering from Nirma Institute of Technology. He also scored in the 99.6th percentile on the CAT (Common Admission Test for the Indian Institutes of Management) test.

Personal Life

Anurag Arjun is from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. He speaks English, Gujarati, Hindi, and Malayalam.^[8]

Career

Arjun started his career in 2006 as a Programmer Analyst at Cognizant. He was also a member of the Life Sciences Solutions and Consulting Group at Cognizant division in Pune, India. In 2008, he became a Product Manager at Dexter Consultancy. Arjun worked there for five years and during this time he co-founded two products - HealthTrac, a remote vital health parameter monitoring platform through third-party wearable devices, and HealthOne, a free SaaS-based clinic management tool for doctors.^[2]

I am a technologist at heart, who integration is what I absolutely love - taking practices from different apps or domains and applying them. I have basic coding chops, advanced product definition expertise, intermediate customer research and customer development skills.

In 2013, Arjun left Dexter Consultancy to work as a project manager at SNL Financial. At IRIS Business Services, he rose to the position of Associate Vice President of Product Management in a year. Anjur oversaw a 40+ member cross-functional team as they overhauled the product completely, resulting in major changes to the UX process and design, application performance optimization, and greater code maintainability.

Polygon

In December 2017, Anurag Arjun became a Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of the Matic Network, which was later rebranded as Polygon. In this capacity, Arjun has been responsible for outlining the company’s product roadmap, overseeing integrations with partner networks, and managing the team responsible for the platform’s development.

Polygon has established itself as a platform within the blockchain industry. Its Layer 2 scaling solution addresses scalability challenges associated with Ethereum, enabling faster and more cost-effective transactions. This has led to the development of over 37,000 decentralized applications (dApps) on Polygon as of August 2022, according to data from Alchemy.

Several projects and companies, including Aave, Sushiswap, and Adobe, have adopted Polygon’s technology. The platform’s growth is attributed to its scalability, interoperability, and user-focused design, being positioned as a component of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Arjun also clarified in an interview with cointelegraph in June 2024 that Polygon’s development was intended to complement the Ethereum ecosystem, rather than to compete with it. According to Arjun, the initial goal was to create a scaling solution for Ethereum, although the Plasma approach ultimately proved infeasible.

This realization led to Polygon’s pivot to its Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, laying the foundation for the development of ZK-rollup solutions.^[3][7]

Avail

Avail mainnet was launched on July 24, 2024 and the ecosystem is structured in three main layers, each serving a distinct function to support the overall goal of creating a cohesive blockchain environment:

• Data Availability (DA) Layer: This foundational layer focuses on data availability, providing a scalable and optimized environment for modular chains. The DA layer ensures that developers can independently verify data availability using validity proofs, eliminating the need to trust Avail’s claims.
• Nexus Layer: Nexus is a zero-knowledge proof-based coordination rollup that acts as a verification hub, unifying rollups both within and outside the Avail ecosystem. It leverages Avail DA for its root of trust and includes a proof aggregation/verification layer and a sequencer selection mechanism.
• Fusion Security Layer: Fusion enhances the security of the Avail network by allowing assets from major ecosystems like Bitcoin and Ethereum to be staked alongside Avail’s native assets. This integration of foreign tokens bolsters Avail’s cryptoeconomic security.

Avail aims to bridge gaps between various blockchain ecosystems, enhancing scalability, interoperability, and security through its robust infrastructure and modular approach. ^[9][10]

Arjun mentioned in a Twitter thread that he initiated work on Avail within Polygon Labs back in 2020. However, with Polygon’s current focus on its Layer 2 solutions, the Layer 1 Avail chain no longer aligns with the project’s primary objectives:

“Avail as a modular blockchain with a data availability layer is uniquely positioned to help developers overcome the challenges of monolithic blockchains but falls outside Polygon's L2 solutions. Thus, I offered to continue leading Avail as a separate, self-funded entity,” - Anurag Arjun

As an independent project, Avail continues to focus on advancing blockchain infrastructure through its modular architecture. The platform’s structure—comprising the Data Availability Layer, Nexus Layer, and Fusion Security Layer, is designed to facilitate interoperability and security across different blockchain networks.^[11][12]

Anurag Arjun on Modular Blockchains and Avail

In an interview with Incrypted on June 29, 2024, Anurag Arjun discussed his transition from Polygon to focusing on Avail, a modular blockchain designed to address data availability (DA). Arjun’s engagement with blockchain technology began after reading Mastering Bitcoin, which later led to the co-founding of Polygon with the aim of resolving Ethereum’s scalability challenges.

Arjun noted that as Polygon developed, it became clear that rollups required improved data availability solutions. Avail was initially created within Polygon to meet this demand, but by March 2023, it became an independent project to maintain a neutral stance and support a broader range of rollups.

Avail operates as a modular data availability layer, enhancing scalability, security, and interoperability among different blockchain networks. Its structure includes Avail DA for scalability, Avail Nexus for cross-chain communication, and Avail Fusion for multi-asset staking.

Arjun highlighted the increasing relevance of modular blockchains like Avail in addressing scalability challenges within the blockchain industry. He also pointed out the role of the AVAIL token within the project, which is utilized for network services, security through staking, and governance.

Looking forward, Arjun sees Avail as a critical layer for Web3, aiding the scalability and interoperability of the broader blockchain ecosystem. He also maintains a positive outlook on the future of the Polygon ecosystem, anticipating further innovation in modular blockchain solutions and a continued focus on sustainability and energy efficiency in 2024.^[13]

Avail Funding Rounds

In 2024, Anurag Arjun, led Avail through two significant funding rounds totaling $75 million. In February, Avail secured a $27 million seed round co-led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly, with participation from investors such as SevenX, Figment, and Nomad Capital.

The funds were allocated to advance Avail's three core components: the Data Availability (DA) layer, Nexus unification layer, and Fusion Security layer, collectively known as the "Avail Trinity." These components aim to address challenges in blockchain scalability and interoperability by enabling modular execution layers to scale and interoperate in a trust-minimized manner. ^[15]

In June 2024, Avail announced a $43 million Series A funding round, again co-led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly, with additional participation from Cyber Fund, SevenX Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, and others. This round brought Avail's total funding to $75 million.

The capital was directed toward building out Avail’s Unification Layer, a modular technology stack that combines data availability, aggregation, and shared security to enable modular blockchains to scale and interoperate permissionlessly and securely. Additionally, the funds supported the development of Avail’s Fusion Security layer, which integrates assets like Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) to contribute to the security of the Avail ecosystem. The Fusion Security layer was anticipated to go live in early 2025. ^[16]

Anurag Arjun emphasized the importance of these developments in addressing critical challenges in the Web3 space, stating;

"With this new capital, we are poised to accelerate our development, expand our global presence, and continue to address the most critical challenges facing Web3 today, such as blockchain fragmentation, insufficient data availability, and limited scaling."

He also highlighted the evolving landscape of blockchain technology, noting;

"Rollup tooling will mature to such an extent that it will be as easy to deploy an app-specific rollup as it is to deploy a smart contract today." ^{[15] [16]}