[Funding alert] Crypto lending platform Vauld raises $2M from investor

Singapore-based crypto lending platform Vauld on Tuesday announced that it has raised $2 million (15 crores) of institutional capital to expand operations in India and abroad. 

The investors include Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, CMT digital, Gumi Cryptos Capital, LuneX Ventures, Robert Leshner (CEO of Compound Finance) and Tarun Chaitra’s Robot Ventures, CoinShares, Better Capital, New Form Capital, Jesus Rodrigues (the CEO of Intotheblock) and others. 

The fresh funding follows Vauld’s earlier investment round of $500k from Singapore’s LuneX Ventures, as well as a few India-based angel investors in June.

According to the startup, the fund raised in this round will be used to expand from being an India-focused crypto platform to a holistic DEFI platform which now also includes payments, credit and trading. 

Founded by two Indian entrepreneurs - Darshan Bathija and Sanju Sony Kurian, both of whom have built and scaled their previous homegrown startups past their Series A rounds.

“We finally see institutional capital come into India’s fintech ecosystem with the expectation of banking integrations that complement existing crypto credit offerings,” said Darshan Bathija, CEO, Vauld , in a statement.

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According to the company founders, Vauld’s immediate goals include rolling out an OTC trade desk, fiat and crypto order books, and international debit/credit cards - while they continue to offer a lucrative yield on users’ funds.

Speaking about the future goal, Sanju Sony Kurian, Vauld’s Co-founder and CTO, said,

“Hiring is the focus of the hour in the Indian Market. Vauld plans to double down on engineering talent (plan to 3x hiring) and open offices across the country."

“We also look forward to closely working with the commodities and banking regulators in the country, and ensure our partners are and remain fully compliant through the changing regulatory landscape,” added Darshan.

Vauld is currently tackling the challenge to provide liquidity in new crypto markets (like India) for institutions to buy cryptocurrencies for the first time and generate a yield.