Singapore-based crypto lending platform Vauld has raised US$ 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. This is following Vauld’s earlier investment round of $500k from Singapore’s LuneX Ventures, as well as a few India-based angel investors in June.
Vauld raised this round to expand from being an India-focused crypto platform to a holistic DEFI platform which now also includes payments, credit and trading. “We finally see institutional capital come into India’s fintech ecosystem with the expectation of banking integrations that complement existing crypto credit offerings,” highlighted Darshan Bathija, CEO, Vauld.
The last time Vauld raised funding was earlier this year by LuneX Ventures. Vauld has grown 10x since then. The company expects to see higher all-time highs in the market as cryptocurrencies continue to gain in popularity and more people see them as one of the best hedges against weakening economies and fiat currencies.
“Vauld’s vision to make cryptocurrency the preferred instrument of banking by making it simple to use and interoperable with the current banking infrastructure is what we are excited about,” stated Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital.
“Hiring is the focus of the hour in the Indian market,” highlighted Sanju Sony Kurian, Vauld’s Co-founder and CTO. Vauld plans to double down on engineering talent (plan to 3x hiring) and opening 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 Bhatija.