By
Chimamanda U. Martha
March 28th, 2024
The list of new investors in the round included Advanced Blockchain, Republic, Rarestone, Yunt Capital, P2P Validator, Femboy Capital, and Ethereal Ventures, and their limited partners.
Element Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) fixed-rate protocol, revealed on Tuesday that it had concluded a $32 million Series A investment round at a $320 million value. Polychain Capital, the San-Francisco-based investment firm led the round.
The Series A round also saw participation from previous investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Placeholder, A_Capital Ventures, and Scalar Capital. New investors in the round include Advanced Blockchain, Republic, Rarestone, Yunt Capital, P2P Validator, Femboy Capital, and Ethereal Ventures, and their limited partners.
Some of DeFi’s most well-known builders also participated in the latest round. Rune Christensen (Founder of MakerDAO), Stani Kulechov (Founder & CEO of Aave), Fernando Martinelli (Co-Founder & CEO of Balancer), Kain Warwick (Founder of Synthetix), Hart, Lambur (Co-Founder of UMA Protocol), Julian Koh (Co-Founder & CEO of Ribbon Finance), Alex Svanevik (Co-Founder & CEO of Nansen), and many more were all involved in the round.
Element Finance after the round stated that they were thrilled that these partners align with the firm’s vision. “We can count on their accumulated experience to make Element an even more robust DeFi protocol that will continue to unlock DeFi globally and introduce powerful new primitives,” the firm wrote on its official blog.
Element Finance revealed that the firm will strengthen its team across all project areas with this new fundraising round to continue growing at a rate that allows them to improve the protocol, innovate, and strengthen their research efforts. The company added that they are currently looking to hire Engineers, Economists, Researchers, Project Managers, and Designers that can help them in building new financial primitives.
The firm also announced that it will be launching Element’s governance system and working on several enhancements to the platform’s overall user experience soon. “We’ll also push forward new product concepts and continue significant research for enhancing DeFi and the blockchain space as a whole,” the firm stated. Co-founder and CEO of Element Finance, Will Villanueva speaking the round said “Fixed rates are a stepping stone for more participants to come into the world of DeFi, and we’re excited to play a role in that.”
Polychain Capital founder and CEO Olaf Carlson-Wee also stated that “Element is a breakthrough financial primitive that has quickly become a cornerstone of DeFi, and soon we think will be a core piece of our global financial infrastructure.”
Element Finance’s open-source protocol for fixed and variable yield markets debuted on the market on June 30, and according to the firm, it has since surpassed 9,000 active users and reached $70 million in trade volume alongside $180 million in total value locked. The firm also raised $4.4 million from a16z and Placeholder in March.