Polychain Leads New Financing Round for Network School, Valued at $2 Billion
Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, announced at the Network State conference that Polychain is leading a new financing round for Network School, which is valued at $2 billion. Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase, and project initiator Balaji Srinivasan are also participating, though the specific financing amount has not been disclosed.
Carlson-Wee stated that Polychain does not consider incremental improvements as its main strategy, but instead seeks projects that solve problems in different ways using new business models or technologies. He expressed excitement about participating in this financing round and mentioned that he has known and collaborated with Balaji for over ten years. The conference information was announced on-site, and no independent closing documents have yet been made public regarding the equity distribution for this round.
He also described Network School as a human organizational form native to the internet, aiming to translate online social networks and organizational logic into physical space, providing members with a peaceful option to enter a parallel system. The project was initiated by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan in 2024, combining technical learning, remote work, entrepreneurial exchange, and communal living within the same community experiment.
Network School will establish a campus in Forest City, Malaysia, in October 2024, located near Singapore. Public introductions indicate that shared room memberships were previously priced at $1,500 per month, covering accommodation, three meals, gym access, activities, co-working, and networking; private room prices are higher. The project also offers a one-year residency grant for founders committed to being on-site for a year, with individual grants up to $100,000.
In July 2026, Balaji publicly stated that the campus had invested over 100 million ringgit without government funding and was prepared to advance an expansion exceeding 500 million ringgit, along with a scholarship in collaboration with Replit founder Amjad Masad. He also indicated that further investment plans in Malaysia would be paused until guarantees were received that the controversies in Forest City would not recur, leading to the suspension of plans from some fellow investors.
This round of funding comes from crypto funds, venture capital firms, and the project initiator himself, rather than public market purchases. The buyers are led by Polychain, with a16z and Coinbase participating, while the sellers are the project parties relinquishing equity or shares, with amounts undisclosed, making it impossible to determine the dilution ratio. The event was driven by the valuation announcement at the conference, rather than secondary market volume of tokens or stocks. Beneficiaries are the community experiments receiving institutional endorsement and early shares following this narrative; those under pressure are similar co-living projects still priced based on bed, dining, and membership income, as the $2 billion valuation elevates the member community into venture capital pricing.
Dealroom registers the project in Singapore, Polychain and Coinbase in San Francisco, and Andreessen Horowitz in Menlo Park. The announcement did not specify whether this round of funding would be used to restart the expansion in Malaysia or shift to other locations.
Source: Public Information
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Olaf Carlson-Wee is an early employee of Coinbase and founded Polychain in 2016, shifting the main focus of crypto funds from the application layer to the protocol layer. Balaji Srinivasan has transitioned from co-founder of Counsyl to CTO of Coinbase and then to general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, publishing "The Network State" in 2022, which outlines a transferable community governance structure for startups. Their intersection spans over a decade, and this lead investment represents a repricing of an old relationship rather than a first meeting of a new team.
The direction of the funding is to structure the member community as a financeable equity. Coinbase's investment equates to a return of a former employer to the new entity of its former CTO; a16z's investment represents a return of a former partner platform to a physical version of its public theory. Balaji's personal investment layers personal and institutional credit onto the same funding sheet. The campus in Forest City, which has already invested over 100 million ringgit, is set to open in October 2024; the expansion exceeding 500 million ringgit was paused in July 2026. This undisclosed amount of financing functions more like a rebuilding of capital commitments after the residency controversy.
In contrast, the experiment of the charter jurisdiction in Honduras' Prospera and Praxis's urban narrative fundraising for venture capital can be noted. Network School is currently in a refinancing stage after expansion obstacles: bed spaces and memberships have already run through, the Malaysia expansion is on hold, and the $2 billion valuation appeared before new residency and income disclosures. Control remains with the initiators and leading funds, not with the monthly-paying members.
Essentially, this is a restructuring of the industry chain. Previously, communities relied on rent and membership fees to cover accommodation and dining; this round rebrands the same set of beds, courses, and networks as equity in a governance experiment. The mechanism is that narrative precedes cash flow: institutions are not buying room occupancy rates but rather a replicable organizational entry point and access to the old networks of Coinbase and a16z. The residency can be paused, but the valuation announcement has already set the entry price.
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Valuation announced first, documents to follow after closing.
Former colleagues investing represents a second pricing of relationships.
Bed spaces sell for rent, communities sell equity, and entry points sell narratives.