Kresko raises $2.35 million in seed funding led by Electric Capital and Polychain to build a novel synthetic asset protocol

October 6, 2021 PRESS RELEASE

Kresko, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol built to enable synthetic assets, completed a $2.35 million funding round. Electric Capital and Polychain led their seed round.

Kresko’s mission is to make wealth accessible to anyone, anywhere.

Market Opportunity

In the last decade, global markets have grown 50% and US markets by 186%. And only a tiny fraction of the population has benefited from this growth. Kresko wants to help underprivileged and disenfranchised people participate in this growth story.

The idea for Kresko was formed in February 2021 during the r/wallstreetbets (WSB) and Robinhood debacle. When WSB followers started buying GameStop to stand against billion-dollar hedge funds shorting the stock, the Robinhood trading platform censored users by preventing $GME purchases.

The incident emphasized how market traditions excluded ordinary people.

That’s when I came up with the idea of Kresko — a solution that upholds individual choice and gives market access to people who don’t have it,

said Deepak Nuli, Founder of Kresko.

Product

Kresko is an open platform for synthetic stocks, commodities, and crypto. The platform consists of two products — the Kresko protocol and the Minter application.

The Kresko protocol enables creation of crypto-backed synthetic assets such as krTSLA, krGold, and krQQQ in a capital-efficient way. The Minter app is a GUI built on top of the Kresko protocol.

We are impressed by the strong emphasis placed on creating easy to use products and on security of the protocol,

said Ben Perszyk, GP at Polychain Capital.

The following lists some of the features of the Kresko platform:

One-Stop DeFi app: Today’s DeFi platforms require the users to go to external apps like Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to manage their portfolio. This adds friction and is not a good user experience. The Kresko platform enables — minting, trading, pooling, and farming — all in one place.

Capital-efficient: The protocol’s single CDP-per-account model makes it capital efficient compared to existing DeFi protocols.

Great user experience & composability: It has simplified debt management features for borrowers by allowing them to manage multiple debt positions using a single vault.

It is also composable with wallets & dApps to list and manage krAssets.

Security-first Approach: All assets are overcollateralized with crypto. Distinct risk parameters for every asset keep the protocol healthy.

Multiple internal and external security audits have been completed.

Team

The Kresko team is led by Deepak who has deep expertise in cybersecurity.

Deepak is a rare combination of Web3 native, community builder, and cybersecurity expert — all traits that are essential in building a successful DeFi platform. We’re excited to support Kresko’s goal to break down financial barriers,

noted Ken Deeter, a partner at Electric Capital

The team is strong technically with experience building DeFi protocols including Celo, Kava, and Sushiswap.

The core engineering team at Kresko is very talented. They have previously held core roles in several blockchains, DeFi protocols, and multichain tooling,

said Ben Perszyk.

Roadmap

Kresko’s roadmap includes releasing an alpha version during Q3 of 2022. The following gives a summarized roadmap:

• Q2-Q4 2021: Seed fundraise, MVP release
• Q1 2022: Synthetic protocol GitHub code release, Quantstamp security audits
• Q2 2022: Oracle integrations, Economic audit
• Q3 2022: Minter app closed alpha (Testnet), Minter app guarded launch, Surprise product
• Q4 2022: Minter app public launch, Kresko base protocol research

Additional Fundraise Details

Along with Electric Capital and Polychain, other investors in the round included Hypersphere Ventures, Bancor founders — Guy Benartzi and Eyal Hertzog, Angel investor and Aragon board member Stefano Bernardi, VP of research at The Block, Larry Cermak, Celo founders, Marek Olszewski and Rene Reinsberg, Davoa Capital, and Flori Ventures.

Kresko will use the proceeds to grow the team. This will enable them to further advance their platform. This includes protocol development, engineering and economic audit of the protocol, and creating a base liquidity layer for Kresko.

About Kresko

Kresko’s mission is to make wealth accessible to anyone, anywhere. Kresko is an open platform for synthetic stocks, commodities, and crypto.

The platform consists of two products. The Kresko protocol enables creation of crypto-backed synthetic assets such as krTSLA, krGold, and krQQQ in a capital-efficient way. The Minter app is a GUI built on top of the Kresko protocol.

Contacts

Media & investor relations: hello <at> kresko [dot] fi