Luge Backs Cybrid in $3.8M Raise to Embed Crypto and DeFi within Fintech Platforms
We announced today a new investment in Toronto-based Cybrid, a cloud-based platform that enables consumer fintechs to easily access crypto and DeFi services through simple APIs. Luge Capital participated in the $3.8 million round, led by Golden Ventures, alongside Harvest Ventures and strategic angels. In less than a year since its founding, Cybrid has built a robust suite of products to embed crypto and DeFi in direct-to-consumer experiences, designed for regular consumers.
For most people, cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Solana, etc.) are not really a part of their everyday lives. They may buy and sell crypto products using Wealthsimple, Robinhood or PayPal, but they’re not actually doing anything with those assets. The world of decentralized finance (DeFi) allows people to utilize their crypto holdings to access financial services (borrowing/lending, insurance, etc.), but it’s very complicated. If my mom can’t do it, it’s not simple enough.
Cybrid acts as the layer between the traditional banking world and the crypto/DeFi world. In other words, regular people can put dollars into an account, and Cybrid will handle all of the orchestration required to generate a high-yield return on that cash by accessing DeFi protocols, in a secure and compliant manner. They also enable buy, sell and hold functionality for cryptocurrencies so that challenger banks and wealth management firms don’t need to build it themselves.
The current market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is approximately USD $2.13 trillion, and the total capital that is currently locked into DeFi protocols is about USD $85B. The rise in crypto assets since early 2020 has been primarily driven by large consumer platforms such as PayPal and Wealthsimple making crypto trading more prominent to their consumer customers. The covid-19 pandemic also accelerated crypto popularity as more people discovered retail investing for the first time.
Cybrid sits at the centre of this surge in crypto demand and the new age shift in how financial services are becoming more decentralized. They take care of all the complexity under the hood, including compliance with regulations, so that end consumers can click a button to engage a new product. Most companies that want to offer crypto capabilities don’t have the expertise to build them in-house, so they have to create entire departments to make it happen. Cybrid removes the need to do that, and provides developer-friendly APIs that makes the integration a breeze.
“There is huge demand for crypto and DeFi services from regular consumers, but most companies don’t know how to offer them. We’ve built the tools so that our customers can launch crypto products quickly and easily.”
-Avinash Chidambaram, CEO of Cybrid
The Cybrid team is the best in class to deliver on this mission. Avinash (CEO) has a breadth of experience, spanning software engineering, product management, sales and business development. He came from BlackBerry and Interac, where security and compliance were part of his DNA. He was also the founder of Ario, a credit-as-a-service platform that was acquired by Thinking Capital (Purpose Financial) in November 2020.
Brent (CTO) also comes from a background in data security, regulatory compliance and technical architecture. He was the CTO at Thinking Capital, and grew his career as a Security Architect for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
With other team members from BlackBerry, BRD, CIBC, Digital14 and Coinsquare, Cybrid is set up perfectly to be the underlying infrastructure that unlocks the next generation of financial services for all consumers.
-Karim Gillani, General Partner, Luge Capital
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Cybrid is currently hiring for the following roles:
- Senior Mobile Engineer
- Senior Full Stack Engineer
Please apply here: https://cybrid.applytojobs.ca/
About Luge Capital
Luge Capital is a FinTech-focused venture capital fund, investing in early-stage teams shaping the way the world experiences financial services. We invest in fintech and AI solutions applied to financial services, and love when entrepreneurs challenge the status quo. We work with dedicated founders who are driven to solve real problems that affect people on a global scale. We are an experienced team of operators with a deep industry network to help leaders build successful companies.
