Parallel Finance Ascends to $250 Million Valuation in Latest Strategic Funding Round
Sequoia and Founders Fund led a strategic round for Parallel Finance for an undisclosed amount at a $250m valuation. The first-ever Polkadot investment for Sequoia and one of the first DeFi investments for Founders Fund, Shima Capital is also a participant in the round.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 8, 2021 — Parallel Finance, the leading staking and lending protocol on the Polkadot and Kusama blockchain ecosystems, announced today it closed a strategic round of funding led by Sequoia and Founders Fund, valuing the company at $250 million.
The valuation positions Parallel Finance as one of the highest-valued projects built in the Polkadot ecosystem, viewed by many as Ethereum’s biggest competitor and founded by former Ethereum co-founder and CTO Gavin Wood.
“We are incredibly excited about the vision and potential of DeFi,” said Josephine Chen, partner at Sequoia. “What Yubo and the team at Parallel have built in an incredibly short period makes DeFi more user-friendly for institutional and retail investors and begins the first phase of a transition from legacy financial firms. We share his vision of bringing DeFi to billions, have long believed this is the first step, and are excited to partner with the Parallel team on this journey.”
Polkadot now has over 500 projects in development and saw the most significant growth in developer activity out of any blockchain ecosystem in 2021.
“Working with investors who are committed to our belief in Polkadot’s potential and support our vision for capital efficiency within the DOT and KSM ecosystems is a key priority for Parallel Finance. Our investors desire real value of DeFi protocols and need meaningful yield; Parallel provides this with unmatched levels of liquidity and capital efficiency to the Polkadot and Kusama blockchains.” said Yubo Ruan, Founder of Parallel Finance.
Parallel recently secured the 10th parachain auction of the Kusama crowdloan auctions, receiving $18 Million from Kusama crowdloans in total. The team is now preparing for the start of the Polkadot ecosystems parachain auctions, which begin November 11, with more than 12,000 users participating in Parallel’s money market and liquid staking protocol.
Parallel’s increased capital will enable it to participate in the DOT crowdloan auction during Q4 2021, release the product on mainnet in the coming months, and launch its liquidity mining program soon after.
“Parallel is at the frontier of the DeFi ecosystem and we believe the company will enable broad adoption of technologies like staking and lending,” said John Luttig of Founders Fund. “By offering an expansive set of financial services globally, Yubo and his team will profoundly impact the way individuals interact with cryptocurrency.”
Yida Gao, Managing Partner of Shima Capital: “Yubo is the Elon Musk-type founder in crypto who will build differentiated DeFi products on any layer 1 protocol he and his team set their minds to. That’s why we are incredibly excited to have an opportunity to invest in Parallel’s holding company and support future category defining developments on other layer 1 blockchains outside of Polkadot/Kusama – potential future chains include Ethereum, Solana and Binance Smart Chain.”
With the new investment, Parallel will rapidly expand its engineering, marketing, and HR in the next 6-12 months, investment in security auditing, and position itself as the leading DeFi parachain on the Polkadot network and beyond.
