Details
Niraj Pant is the Co-Founder at Ritual. Presively he was a General Partner at Polychain Capital, where he invests in early-stage cryptocurrency projects. Prior to this role, he researched privacy in the Decentralized Systems Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Niraj has also served as a Member of the Board of Directors for CoinDCX, an Ambassador for Sequoia Capital, and Co-Founder and CTO of Source Networks. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Work Experience
Education Experience
Relevance Person
Akilesh Potti
Akilesh Potti is the Co-founder of Ritual. Presively he was Partner at Polychain, ML at Palantir, HFT, Quant Trading at Goldman, ML Research at {MIT, Cornell}.
Thomas Chippas
Thomas Chippas is the CEO of Argo Blockchain. Previously, he was CEO of ErisX and COO of Axoni.
Thomas Scaria
Thomas Scaria is the Co-founder and CEO of Lore. He previously worked at Polychain Capital as an Entrepreneur In Residence. He graduated from the University of Southern California.
Susmit Lavania
Susmit Lavania is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Huddle01.
Luke Pearson
Luke Pearson is a research cryptographer at Polychain Capital, specializing in blockchain protocols. He works on the technical aspects of projects and protocols related to the next generation of technology, with expertise in ECC, protocol design, smart contract development, decentralized finance, and more. Previously, he worked as a cryptographer at the Dusk Foundation, researching decentralized communication technology. He received his education in Applied Mathematics from the University of Groningen.
Caoimh Conway
Caoimh Conway is a Research Data Engineer at Polychain Capital and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Data Science. Caoimh previously worked as an Emergency Medical Technician for Falcon Ambulance.
Alexa Beaver Smith
Alexa Smith is an advisor & investor for crypto/web3 founders and teams. She was the Beacon Fund Manager at Polychain Capital, where she supports web3 founders and manages the Beacon Fund, which focuses on the Internet Computer ecosystem. Prior to this role, she was the Developer Partnerships Lead at DFINITY and held various other positions in the blockchain and chemical engineering industries. Alexa received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Spanish from Carnegie Mellon University.
Kevin Lehtiniitty
Kevin Lehtiniitty is co-founder and chief technology officer of Fortress Trust Company. He holds a master's degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Vijay Ayyar
Vijay Ayyar is the VP of International Markets & Growth, leads international strategy and expansion for the business, aiming to establish our brand and presence globally. In his previous roles at Luno, another leading crypto wallet and exchange, he launched and led operations in 40+ markets globally while working closely with regulators and bank partners in a number of jurisdictions. He also led investments into multiple crypto, FinTech, and payment startups, and explored Web3 wallets and emerging market stablecoins with partners.
Peter Piekarczyk
Peter Piekarczyk is the founding engineer of Backpack. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
