Pods' Pre-Seed Round
We’ve raised $800k from traditional and DeFi VCs to create the easiest hedging protocol in Ethereum.
We’re happy to share that Pods Finance Inc. has closed a pre-seed round with Boost VC, Framework Ventures, P2P Capital, BitScale, Zeeprime, The LAO, and additional DeFi angel investors by August 2020.
Pods enable the easiest way to hedge crypto assets in Ethereum. Pods Protocol is a decentralized non-custodial Options Protocol that enables users to buy, sell and provide liquidity using an Options AMM.
We’re excited to be partnering with top investors in the DeFi space to support further the growth of the protocol and, ultimately, the mission of making hedge easy. These investors are familiar names both in Decentralized Finance and Crypto, who bring significant expertise and resources to the Pods community.
The mission
Hedging one’s investments can be life-changing for the user’s portfolio.
Considering crypto’s price volatility, some may find it daunting to invest in crypto and still manage to have a good night’s sleep. Pods aim to bring peace of mind to users seeking protection against asset volatility. This can be achieved through buying put options for assets the user currently holds and possibly exercising the options after expiration if “in-the-money.”
Hedging assets has long been an activity done mostly by institutional investors, private banking accounts, or experienced traders. However, DeFi technology allows us to experiment with options concepts in ways that were not possible before. By focusing on creating the best hedging possibility for users, Pods aims to help users feel better about their portfolios, even if they hold volatile assets.
How it started
Rob, Gui, and I have been working together in the space since early 2019. We started doing side projects in Brazil in September 2019. The first side project was ybond (zero-coupon bonds with STOs as collateral), the second was ohmydai (one of the first DeFi options live on mainnet in November 2019) the third was ohmydefi.
After presenting ohmydefi last February at ETH Denver 2020, we were sure we wanted to keep building with options concepts in the DeFi space.
Fast forward to May 2020, we founded Pods Finance Inc., participated in ETH Money by ETHGlobal, and kept working on Pods Protocol.
Last year, we also participated in the best acceleration programs within the DeFi ecosystem: Boost VC, Chicago DeFi Alliance, and KERNEL. Today, we are getting ready to launch Pods on Mainnet by the end of Q1 2021 and bring the first options protocol focused on hedging crypto assets to users in Ethereum.
What’s next
As a DeFi protocol, there’s only one thing we think about right now:
How to safely launch.
Launch
More details about the launch will be shared when it is time, but we intend to have a guarded launch, with only a couple of options and a limit on the number of funds the protocol can hold. The guarded launch will be eased as time passes (cap will be increased as options expire and new ones are created), and there will be a Bug Bounty Program to incentivize hackers to find bugs before we remove the cap completely.
UX/UI
The new Pods Protocol allows for many new and different flows. We had to redesign our app functionalities to accommodate new features, and we’re doing a new set of beta testing rounds with the new app. If you are interested in joining a session, please subscribe to the website.
Team
We’re looking to hire some extraordinary people to join our team. Joining Pods at such an early stage is the perfect opportunity for those who enjoy ownership and want to play a significant role in the future of Pods and Decentralized Hedging. Read more and apply here.
Special Thanks
We’re lucky and grateful for all the great people that we met and who helped us along the way. We want to take a moment to acknowledge those that somehow (direct or indirectly) took part in different points of our journey. Luiz Henrique Ottino, Aaron Wright, Felipe Lopes, Stani Kulechov, Joseph Delong, Peter Pan, and all the beta testers provided precious feedback and helped guide our product.
We have a long way ahead of us, and we’re glad to have you on our side.
About Pods
Pods is a decentralized non-custodial options protocol. Users can create options and trade them through an Options AMM on the Ethereum Blockchain. Pods is the easiest way to hedge crypto in DeFi.
We invite you to take the first step in your new mission: start testing the app on app.pods.finance
Join the Pods community
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