Kelp DAO secures $9 million in private sale round to boost decentralized finance and restaking platform development.
Kelp DAO, a liquid restaking platform, has successfully closed a $9 million private sale round. This significant milestone is set to advance its mission of enhancing decentralized finance (DeFi) and transforming the restaking landscape.
Leading the round were SCB Limited, a proprietary trading firm based in the Bahamas, and Laser Digital, the digital asset arm of Nomura Global, together contributing $3.5 million. Other prominent investors included Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere, Draper Dragon, DACM, Cypher Capital, ArkStream, Cluster Capital, GSR, Longhash, Side Door Ventures, NOIA Capital, HTX Ventures, Avid3, ViaBTC Capital, DWF Ventures, Coinseeker, and several others.
The raised funds will build on the platform’s already impressive metrics, including over $850 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) and a community of more than 40,000 active restakers. This capital injection will be directed towards enhancing the platform’s capabilities, expanding into other ecosystems such as Solana and Bitcoin, and driving further innovation in restaking solutions.
This successful funding round underscores the strong confidence from global investors. Additionally, it saw support from several notable angel investors within the crypto community, such as Scott, Co-founder of Gitcoin; Alex, CEO of Nansen; Sam K, Co-founder of Frax; Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative; Saurabh Sharma from Jump Crypto; Amrit, COO of Altlayer; Anthony, Co-founder of Swissborg; and Winslow Strong from Mr. Block.
Dheeraj Borra, Co-founder of Kelp DAO, said, “This fundraise propels our expansion in the market and sharpens our focus on building customer centric solutions. It’s truly thrilling to have our investors share that vision.” Both Kelp DAO founders, Amitej Gajjala and Dheeraj Borra, expressed gratitude for the support of investors to drive Kelp DAO towards scaling new heights in restaking solutions.
Jez Mohideen, CEO of Laser Digital, added their support for the project, stating “We are very excited to support Kelp DAO and the passionate team in its journey towards building innovative restaking infrastructure solutions.”
This enthusiasm was reiterated by Jack Platts, Co-founder of Hypersphere Ventures, saying, “We’re excited by the prospect of restaking enabling more developer experimentation and use cases. Kelp’s proven team and focus on user experience is playing a key role in this restaking’s early success. We look forward to the team executing on its vision of enhancing yields and optionality for ETH stakers.”
Kelp DAO has established itself as a leading liquid restaking protocol with over $850 million in assets under management and a robust community of 45,000+ restakers. The platform’s liquid restaked token (LRT) was the first of its kind to be deployed on the Ethereum mainnet, pioneering the concept of liquid restaking with liquid staking tokens. Currently, Kelp DAO facilitates liquid restaking for both native ETH and liquid staking tokens across the Ethereum mainnet and eight Layer 2 networks.
Nomura’s Laser Digital is a key backer of Kelp DAO, providing scalable and robust opportunities across trading, asset management, and ventures. The team at Laser Digital adheres to higher standards of risk management, compliance, and commercial viability, driven by a strong belief in responsible crypto innovation.
With this new influx of funds and investor confidence, Kelp DAO is well-positioned to continue leading the charge in the DeFi space, delivering enhanced restaking solutions and expanding its ecosystem reach, ensuring it remains at the forefront of decentralized finance innovation.
