- ● Leading blockchain development platform, Polygon, and UK based blockchain community ETHAnglia to partner with Norwich companies – Akcela, and Tech Educators – creating a new ‘Builders hub’ to build a powerhouse of blockchain innovation.
- ● The partnership will deliver a world-first Polygon-supplied coding boot camp to train over 200 developers to code using blockchain technology over the next 10 months, along with community and investment support.
Norwich, England, June 28, 2022 — Norwich based tech incubator, Akcela, and coding boot camp Tech Educators today announce a partnership with blockchain community ETHAnglia and tech giant and leading Ethereum scaling solution – Polygon – to deliver a world-first ‘builder hub’ which will lead a boot camp, running with a Polygon-designed program. This affirms ETHAnglia and Akcela’s ongoing aim to support the UK, starting with the East of England, to become a powerhouse of creative, use case-based engineers building with blockchain technology. The Akcela incubator, based in the centre of Norwich, has partnered with Polygon to provide facilities, workspace and a network of entrepreneurs and advisors to support the new bootcamp, which Norwich-based Tech Educators will run. Polygon – which recently raised $450m from an investment round led by Sequoia Capital India, valuing the ecosystem at $20bn – will support the partnership by helping to showcase the initiative on a global stage. As projects start to demonstrate traction, Polygon will also commit support through:
- – access to world-class speakers and mentors,
- – social and community-building events,
- – welcome vouchers with a value of up to $40000
- – grants for early-stage concepts, ranging from $5000 – $15000
- – smart contract auditing,
- – hosting packages
- – providing introductions to scaling VC investment
Tech Educators, the coding boot camp based within the Akcela incubator, has been given access to the high-quality web3 coding boot camp program from Polygon, with the target of training over 200 developers to code using the technology over the next 10 months. These courses will be offered free of charge, both in-person and online. James Adams, Managing Director at Akcela and one of the founding team at ETHAnglia explained how this marks a significant step forward towards the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak’s vision on making the UK a ‘global cryptoasset hub’. “Furthering our relationship with Polygon in such a concise and action-orientated manner is a leap forward with our vision of developing the capability for blockchain, starting in Norwich, the East of England and then ultimately across the UK. We have all heard the vision of Rishi Sunak to make the UK a ‘global cryptoasset hub’ – if we are going to do that, we need the developers, the creatives and the entrepreneurs to build high-quality projects that solve real-world problems. We believe we have all the requirements with this partnership to accelerate education and community to deliver those very building blocks and the support structures to create the businesses that contribute to that vision.” Akcela and Tech Educators have both demonstrated strong capabilities in the blockchain space since launching in 2021. The Akcela incubator is home to a number of businesses working with blockchain technologies, some of which are already attracting investment from well-respected global investors such as Animoca. In addition, Tech Educators has already helped to grow two pre-launch businesses that started from the first EVM-based blockchain coding bootcamp.