DeFi has finally surpassed the magical $11 billion level in Total Value Locked (TVL) inside of smart contracts!
Pretty epic, right?
What is even more epic is that it just took 3-months to rise from $2.5 billion TVL to the current $11B TVL today;
That is some extraordinary growth!
As a result, it is no surprise to see Venture Capitalists pouring millions into various DeFi protocols and tools.
Following is a quick list of the latest investments that I think you should know about if you care where the money is being poured in. Most of the following raising funds were made between August-September 2020.
1. APY.FInance
https://apy.finance/
Raised: $3.6M in Seed Funding Round
Backers Include:
- Arrington XRP Capital
- Alameda Research
- Cluster Capital
- CoinGecko
APY.Finance, expected to launch in mid-October, will be an automated investment service platform to allow users to earn yields through DeFi in a risk/reward optimized fashion. It does this by giving users a frictionless method to pool their liquidity and allocate it across a portfolio of different strategies. The seed investment is to be used in developing the platform and performing any required audits.
2. Hedget
https://www.hedget.com/
Raised: $500,000 in Seed Funding Round
Backers Include:
- FBG Capital
- NGC Ventures
- Chromia
Hedget is an Ethereum layer-2 solution protocol designed for decentralized options trading on-chain. It allows users to buy and sell derivatives using collateral to hedge any risk. It will also allow users to hedge on positions of debt taken up on different lending protocols in DeFi.
3. RAMP DeFi
https://rampdefi.com/
Raised: $1M in a Private Sale
Backers Include:
- Alameda Research
- ParaFi Capital
- XRP Capital
- IOST
- Signum Capital
- Ruby Capital
- Blockwater VC
RAMP DEFI is a cross-chain liquidity bridge that creates an on/off-ramp to allow holders of non-ERC-20 staked assets to utilize their assets. Users can mint either rUSD by depositing onto the platform which can then be used to lend, borrow, or exchange within the DeFI market. The best part about RAMP is that users continue to receive staking rewards on their original non-ERC-20 staked assets.
4. Polkastarter
https://www.polkastarter.com/
Raised: $875,000 in Seed and Private Sale
Backers Include:
- NGC Ventures
- Moonrock Capital
- Signum Capital
- Astronaut Capital
Polkastarter is a DEX built for cross-chain token pool auctions on top of the Polkadot blockchain. It is designed to allow projects to raise capital on a decentralized, permissionless, and interoperable environment - allowing for swaps that reach beyond just ERC-20 assets. In addition to this, the DEX will have a KYC integration to ensure a trustworthy environment for investors and projects.
5. Dune Analytics
https://www.duneanalytics.com/
Raised: $2M Seed Round
Backers Include:
- Dragonfly Capital
- Multicoin Capital
- Hashed
- Semantic Ventures
- COINBASE Ventures
- Digital Currency Group
- Alameda Research
- CoinGecko
- Stani Kulechov
- Matteo Leibowitz
- Calvin Liu
- Stefan George
- Anthony Sassano
- Luis Ceuende
- Jake Brukjman
- Jason Choi
- Ryan Sean Adams
- Regan Bozman
- Yearn Finance
Dune Analytics is an Ethereum analytics tool that allows users to create and share analysis of Ethereum data. It presents data from smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain in a visual fashion through charts to make it easier to digest what is occurring on-chain for Ethereum and ERC-20 assets.
6. Bifrost
https://bifrost.finance/en
Raised: $600,000 in Seed Funding
Backers Include:
- NGC Ventures
- SNZ Holding
- Consensus Lab
- Digital Renaissance
- Youbi Capital
- DFG
- Longhash
Bifrost is a cross-chain (they call it Parachain) network designed to provide liquidity for staking. It allows users to swap their PoS (staked coins) for vTokens which can then be used in DeFi protocols, Exchanges, dApps, and be traded across chains. Through Bifrost, users have the chance to leverage up their rewards on any staked assets.
7. Linear Finance
https://linear.finance/
Raised: $1.8M in Seed Funding
Backers Include:
- NGC Ventures
- Alameda Research
- Hashed
- CMS Holdings
- Soul Capital
- Moonrock Capital
- PANONY
Linear Finance is a synthetic asset protocol that is expected to launch its mainnet in November. Linear Finance will be different from other synthetic asset protocols such as Synthetix and UMA due to the fact that it will have cross-chain compatibility. Due to its integration with BINANCE Smart Chain, Linear Finance is also expected to be cheaper and faster compared to the competition.
8. InstaDApp
https://dsa.instadapp.io/
Raised: $2.4M in Seed Funding Round
Backers Include:
- Pantera Capital
- Naval Ravikant
- Balaji Srinivasan
- Coinbase Ventures
- IDEO Colab
- Robot Ventures
- Loi Luu
InstadApp is a Defi management platform to allow users to control their DeFi assets across different protocols from one dashboard. Currently, it has integrations with Compound, Aave, MakerDAO, Uniswap, Curve, and Kyber Network. Users can easily, lend, borrow, conduct leveraged trading, and swap ERC-20 tokens directly on the platform.
9. ParaSwap
https://paraswap.io/
Raised: $2.7M in a Seed Funding Round
Backers Include:
- Blockchain Capital
- Alameda Research
- Arrington XRP Capital
- Coinfund
- CoinGecko
- Stani Kulechov
ParaSwap is a liquidity aggregator that draws liquidity from different Decentralized Exchanges across the DeFi Sector. As a result, swaps conducted on ParaSwap are expected to be the best DEX rates possible as orders can easily be split across a number of different exchanges to achieve this. Additionally, GAS fees are cheaper on ParaSwap as they use their own GAStoken.
10. Uniswap
https://app.uniswap.org/
Raised: $11M in Series A
Backers Include:
-Andreessen Horowitz
-USV
-Paradigm
-Version One,
-Variant
-Parafi Capital
-SV Angel
-A.Capital
Uniswap is currently the most popular decentralized exchange where anyone can swap ERC-20 tokens or provide liquidity and earn fees. Born on November 2018, it has been led by since then by Hayden Adams.
As of late September 2020 the total value locked in is above $2B. Source
