Data and trade execution service provider Skolem Technologies announced Wednesday that it has closed a $20 million Series A round led by Galaxy Digital.
Point72 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Fenwick and West, Morpheus Ventures and Dragonfly Capital also joined the round, according to a release.
Skolem aims to provide a safe and secure entry point for institutional investors wishing to access the constantly evolving decentralized finance (DeFi) markets, according to CEO and founder JP Smith. Proceeds from this round will go toward hiring and improving the company’s technological capabilities in order to further enable institutional-grade access to DeFi.
“The options for institutions today are either roll-your-own tech stack and hire an engineering team or let Skolem do the heavy lifting,” Galaxy Digital’s Will Nuelle said in the statement.
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital, said that DeFi markets currently lack the guardrails necessary for institutions with strict risk and reporting requirements to get involved. Quereshi went on to note that the Skolem team has created a “simple, yet cutting-edge, solution to enable DeFi to reach its full potential.”
The deal comes as DeFi-focused venture deal activity dropped in May to its lowest point since September 2021, according to data gathered by The Block Research.
Funding for the month came in at $176 million as — for the first time since July 2020 — DeFi wasn’t one of the two most popular deal types, according to John Dantoni, an analyst at The Block Research.
Source: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/150491/skolem-announces-20-million-series-a-round-led-by-galaxy-digital?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss