The idea for Solana was born in 2017 in the mind of Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Qualcomm engineer. Frustrated by the speed limitations of Bitcoin and Ethereum, he devised the Proof of History (PoH) mechanism, publishing its whitepaper in November 2017.
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2018: Solana Labs is founded (~$20M Series A); co-founders Greg Fitzgerald, Raj Gokal, Stephen Akridge, Eric Williams.
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March 16, 2020: mainnet beta launches.
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Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX/Alameda invested in 2020, purchasing a total of 58 million SOL — worth roughly $814 million at the 2021 peak.
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Nov. 2022: after FTX's collapse, the community forked the FTX-linked Serum exchange into OpenBook within 5 days.
Solana Labs is a company that supports development alongside the (non-profit) Solana Foundation, but the network is maintained today by a broad, decentralized community of validators and developers.