Enterprisetech Startup PYOR Bags Funding To Enhance Digital Assets Interpretation For Cos

Data and insights platform PYOR (Power Your Own Research) has raised $4 Mn seed funding led by Castle Island Ventures. The round also saw participation from Hash3, Antler, Future Perfect Venture, Force Ventures, CoinSwitch Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and prominent angel investor Balaji Srinivasan.

PYOR stated that the funding will be used for its core infrastructure expansion and product platform, specifically by enhancing its interpretation layer for digital assets. Also, the startup plans to allocate the money for team expansion in India across various positions. 

Commenting on the growth of the startup, PYOR’s cofounder Krishna Hegde said, “Since launching PYOR last year, we’ve been laser-focused on building the industry standard for digital asset platforms. Unlike other asset classes, digital assets are primarily driven by retail investors, and institutional-grade infrastructure for decision-making has been limited.”

Further explaining the digital assets market structure, he added that though the market  capitalisation has exceeded $1 Tn, effective data infrastructure is needed, to facilitate institutional participation.

“India has a strong talent base across blockchain, analytics and technology domains that is helping us deliver high quality products to global customers. We aim to leverage the capital raised to bolster our mission and drive substantial progress within the global digital assets ecosystem,” he said.

Founded in August 2022 by Sharan Nair, Yadunandan Batchu, Sarmad Nazki and Krishna Hegde, the startup aims to provide key insights on digital assets through a tailor-made desktop analytics interface. 

The Bengaluru-based startup targets global asset management companies, hedge funds, investment banks, wealth advisors, crypto entities (exchanges, projects), and venture capital.

The founding team comes with a collective experience of working with established global financial services firms such as Barclays, KPMG, EY, and multiple Indian unicorns. PYOR claims to be leveraging this range of expertise to offer necessary tools to ensure the mainstream adoption of digital assets.

PYOR has recently introduced a new product called Terminal, which is a plug-and-play data terminal that enables institutions to access fundamental blockchain data and create private queries through a customised dashboard tailored to their requirements.

Further, it aims to accelerate global institutional participation in Web3 by enabling high-fidelity insights and data via a desktop analytics tool. 

The crypto and digital assets market in India after having witnessed a surge during its initial years, now staring at an uncertain business environment owing to stricter government regulation. As in the case, the government has brought trading cryptocurrency and other virtual digital assets (VDAs) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) provisions, 2002. 

Also, in February this year, the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das noted that many members of the G20 coalition are seeking an option to ban crypto transactions completely. According to him, a major chunk of the G20 member nations showed concerns over risks of financial stability and monetary systems, alongside other cyber security issues.

WazirX, Diginoor, Rario, etc are some of the startup’s competitors in India.