Coinbase, Pantera Capital Participate in $2.4M Seed Round of DeFi Startup

Decentralized finance (DeFi) startup InstaDApp has secured $2.4 million in a seed round from an array of strategic investors, including Coinbase Ventures and Pantera Capital.

New funding

InstaDApp is the developer of a mediator smart wallet layer between the user interface and protocols that purportedly simplifies the cost of conducting financial transactions.

According to an Oct. 1 blog post, other investors included Robot Ventures and venture capital company IDEO Colab.

The startup claims that its protocol launch saw a substantial growth, with the value locked in their smart contracts increasing by a factor of nine, from $4 million to more than $35 million. This ostensibly brought InstaDApp to third position in total value locked after MakerDAO and Compound.

Growing interest in DeFi projects

As reported in September, Coinbase launched the new USDC Bootstrap Fund which aims to improve DeFi. Among possible investments, Coinbase named smart contracts, while returns are set to be provided by a counterparty — a borrower or taker. 

In mid-September, MakerDAO awarded a developer grant to blockchain-based employment platform Opolis. The grant enables Opolis to process DAI payments, give companies and freelancers the choice to pay and be paid in DAI, and allow for Opolis members to pay their membership fees in DAI.

Recently, Ripple, the San Francisco-based startup behind the third-largest asset on the crypto market, XRP, acquired payments platform Logos Network. As part of Xpring, the team behind Logos will be exploring a DeFi system that is set to leverage XRP at its core.