Crypto Venture-Capital Firm Paradigm Leads $14M Funding Round for DeFi Platform Exponential

Exponential, a decentralized-finance (DeFi) investment discovery and risk assessment platform, has raised $14 million in a seed funding round that was led by crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm.

Hackers have exploited code vulnerabilities in a growing number of DeFi projects this year. Exploits of cross-chain bridges – which is software that allows users to move assets from one blockchain to another – led to at least $2 billion in lost cryptocurrency during the first half of the year, according to a recent Chainalysis report.

“Investing in DeFi is a labyrinthian hellscape that even the most devoted crypto evangelist can get lost in,” Exponential co-founders Driss Benamour, Mehdi Lebbar and Greg Jizmagian wrote in a post announcing the funding. “Finding legitimate projects, executing trades, moving funds across chains, tracking performance and filing taxes is more than enough to scare off most investors.”

The Exponential platform has an institutional-grade risk assessment system that analyzes a user’s current investments for potential risks in the underlying protocols, assets and blockchains. Users can also find and compare yield opportunities across the major chains and protocols. Exponential will soon launch the ability for customers to invest directly in DeFi projects through its custodial platform.

Other participants in the funding round included Haun Ventures (the VC firm of Andreessen Horowitz alum Katie Haun), the venture-capital arm of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the Solana and Polygon blockchains and the investment arm of USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, among others.

Read more: What Is DeFi?