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Hyderabad-based blockchain startup Instadapp on Monday said it raised $10 million in a new funding round led by Standard Crypto, along with Yearn Founder Andre Cronje, DeFi Alliance, and Longhash Ventures.

Instadapp builds a middleware layer in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space — a blockchain-based form of finance that does not have central financial intermediaries.

The startup said it will use the funds to complete its transition into the middleware layers for DeFi, and support the ecosystem project building on top of the Instadapp protocol.

In October 2019, Indtadapp had raised $2.4 million from Pantera Capital with other investors, including Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase Ventures, IDEO Colab, Robot Ventures, and Kyber Network’s Loi Luu.

The startup aggregates major protocols using a smart wallet layer and bridge contracts, making it easy for users to make the best decision about assets and execute previously complex transactions seamlessly.

It is also planning to launch its in-house governance token called INST.

“At the launch, the core team will be handing over the management of the protocol to the DAO. We believe it is crucial that we allow the community to self-govern, and the team will focus on building essential extensions and growing the protocol ecosystem,” the startup said in a blog post. 

In an earlier interaction with YourStory, Sowmay Jain, Co-founder, Instadapp, said, “While other Dapps are just interfaces for DeFi protocols, we have created a mediator smart wallet layer between the user interface and protocols, which greatly simplifies the effort and cost of performing complex financial transactions, including lend/borrow, leverage, and switch debt positions.”

The cryptocurrency segment in India remains under a cloud of uncertainty as the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is yet to decide on giving it a legal sanctity.

Although the Supreme Court has lifted the ban on cryptocurrency transactions, it is a long road ahead before it gets legislative approval.