Polkadot’s Parallel Finance valued at $500M

Parallel Finance, the go-to lending solution for Polkadot (DOT/USD) and Kusama (KSM/USD) stakers, announced that Coinbase, Section 32, and other strategic funds have invested a total of $5 million in the leading decentralized lending and staking protocol, Invezz learned from a press release.

Parallel Finance, which aims to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to the mainstream, is now valued at $500 million as a result.

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Accelerating strategic objectives

The most recent round of funding will speed up multiple strategic objectives to empower members of the Parallel Finance community, including developing products beyond the Polkadot ecosystem and entering DeFi groups related to ether and NFTs.

As mass adoption becomes a reality, it is critical for the DeFi sector to remain focused on addressing industry growth.

Yubo Ruan, Founder of Parallel Finance, commented:

As we continue to pursue our mission of empowering users and bringing DeFi to mainstream society, we are beyond grateful to our investment partners for their support. The partnership of these impactful companies is a testament to the value that Parallel Finance provides and we are looking forward to reaching our fullest potential with innovative products and offerings for our users to enjoy.

Section 32’s team has vast experience building iconic companies

Section 32 is a VC fund focused on technology and healthcare innovation. It was founded by Bill Maris, founder and former CEO of Google Venture, Google’s VC investment arm.

Section 32’s goal is to speed up the discovery, production, and distribution of critical technologies and life-saving health products. They invest across the entirety of life sciences and technology.

Andy Harrison, managing partner at Section 32, said:

As DeFi continues to emerge, technical advancement, enhanced scalability and consumer accessibility are imperative. We believe that Parallel Finance has the potential to change how consumers interact with DeFi and provide substantial industry growth in Polkadot and beyond.

StarkWare raised $80M from Sequoia

Apart from raising $80 million, StarkWare achieved half a trillion in trading volume since their launch less than two years ago. They provide blockchain scaling services through “STARK” proofs, which use rollup technology and are based on Ethereum (ETH/USD).

These services include StarkNet, a permissionless decentralized ZK-Rollup, and StarkEx, a standalone, permissioned Validity-Rollup.