Skolem Raises $20m in Series A Funding to Enable Institutions Access DeFi
Nicholas Otieno Jun 09, 2022 06:45
The fundraise shows Skolem’s commitment to developing an easy way for institutions to access DeFi services, enabling firms to easily and reliably access new markets powered by decentralized finance.
Skolem Technologies, institutional-grade asset management and execution services provider based in New York, announced on Thursday that it has raised $20 million in Series A funding.
Galaxy Digital led this round of funding. Other participants include Point72 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Fenwick and West, Morpheus Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital.
Skolem mentioned that it plans to use the new funding to develop its team and scale the platform’s capabilities to enable the growth of the DeFi market by “orders of magnitude.”
JP Smith, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Skolem, admitted that DeFi markets are witnessing constant evolution, thus making it difficult for institutions to trade, record easily, and engage in the market in a secure and reliable manner.
Smith further elaborated on why the firm is committing itself to the DeFi sector: “At Skolem, we are firm believers that DeFi will change our world over the next decade, and we are committed to increasing access to this important market by developing a scalable platform that can safely provide an entry point. This fundraise underscores our partners’ confidence in Skolem’s platform and the much-needed reliability it offers institutions to help them and DeFi markets flourish.”
DeFi Expanding to Institutional Market
Despite the crash of the crypto market at the end of May 2022, partly triggered by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem’s stablecoin and its native crypto LUNA, DeFi services continue to face high demand among users in the long run.
Decentralized finance is part of traditional financial services on the blockchain. Anyone with an Internet connection and a crypto wallet can access DeFi services, such as exchanges, lending protocols, deposits, insurance etc., without relying on trusting another person.
Currently, DeFi has 4.6 billion users worldwide, therefore can potentially solve the problem of financial inclusion.
The World Bank statistics show that more than 1.7 billion people worldwide do not have access to banking services, out of which 1 billion have mobile phones. Through decentralized technologies, these 1 billion people have the opportunity to access lending, deposits and insurance services through the online network.
For the last two years, an increasing number of banks and financial institutions have started purchasing digital assets and building their presence in the world of decentralized applications. They do so because they are aware that their customers are already trading digital assets like Bitcoin and using DeFi services to make more money.
People are the main driver of DeFi adoption. Consumers want to get rid of their debts and make more money, and this creates a demand for investment in cryptos and the usage of DApps. Institutions have realized this and started incorporating DeFi into their financial products because they already have a pool of customers ready and willing to use new services.
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