Crypto Staking Management Startup Stader Labs Raises $4 Mn From Coinbase Ventures, Pantera

Stader Labs, a cryptocurrency staking management platform has raised $4 Mn in its seed funding round led by Pantera Capital for accelerating product development across multiple blockchains and marketing efforts targeted towards the global crypto audience. 

The funding round was led by Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Jump Capital, Proof Group, Hypersphere, Huobi Ventures, Solidity Ventures, Ledgerprime, and Double Peak Group. 

Several blockchain foundations also participated in the round including TerraForm Labs, Solana Foundation, and Near Foundation.

The angels investor who took part in the seed round included Diogo Monica (CEO, Anchorage), Tim Ogilvie (CEO, Staked), Jaynti Kanani (CEO, Polygon), Sandeep Nailwal (COO, Polygon), Nemil Dalal (Head of Crypto, Coinbase), Akash Garg (CTO, Afterpay), Chris McCann (GP, Race Capital), Sumit Gupta (CEO, CoinDCX), Ahmed Al Balaghi (CEO Biconomy), Aniket Jindal (COO, Biconomy), and Harsh Rajat (CEO, EPNS).

Founded in April 2021 by Amitej Gajjala and Sidhartha Doddipalli, Stader Labs is a platform dedicated to making cryptocurrency staking simpler, safer, and more profitable by eliminating the complexity of staking through end-to-end management solutions. 

By aggregating staking solutions of all types, including conventional staking, liquid staking, derivatives, gaming and high-yield strategies, Stader Labs helps delegators discover and choose optimal staking opportunities with unprecedented ease, said a statement from the startup.

Stader Labs diversifies risk by staking across an index of validators, allowing investors to maximise their staking returns by tapping into multiple financial products built on top of staked assets.

With over 5,000 active members, Stader Labs is currently in use on Terra and is building an MVP (minimum viable product) on Solana.

Stader Labs plans to launch a number of products and features in the future to assist delegators in maximising their staking returns with greater ease. 

“Stader Labs will build native smart contracts for staking on multiple blockchains — aiming to cover five to six PoS blockchains over the next year — including Near, Polkadot, Ethereum, Matic, and more, while integrating third-party liquid tokens and building automated yield-maximisation strategies,” it said.

In the long run, Stader Labs plans to build APIs to offer end-to-end staking solutions for exchanges and mainstream fintech apps, tapping into an underserved financial demand for high-quality staking products among retail crypto investors.

Crypto exchanges and staking platforms have witnessed a significant rise in trading and active participation of Indian cryptocurrency exchanges.

On Thursday, CoinSwitch Kuber became the 29th unicorn in 2021 with the closing of its Series C round at $260 Mn at $1.9 Bn valuation, making it the 29th unicorn in 2021, and 71st Indian startup to enter the unicorn club.

It is India’s second crypto unicorn after CoinDCX, which also raised its Series C unicorn making round from Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group as well as Coinbase Ventures.

Although the public acceptance and investment into cryptocurrency has increased in India, regulatory clarity is still awaited and rigid crypto regulations continue hindering large-scale investments in these virtual assets. 

Talks are rife regarding a regulatory framework, but there has been no clear framework in place to implement the same.

The much anticipated cryptocurrency bill is yet to be awaited and is likely to be tabled in the parliament in its upcoming winter session.

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