Blog

London-based Qredo is a platform that provides secure and fast movement of digital assets. In a recent development, the startup has announced that it raised $11M (approx €9.16M) in its Seed round of funding led by a diverse group of investors.

Investors in this round

The Seed round’s investors include Amnis Ventures, Artus Capital, Borderless Capital, Celsius, CMS Holdings, Connect Capital, Deribit, G1, GSR, Gumi Cryptos, Kenetic, Kronos, Maven 11, 1kx, Quantstamp, Rare Stone Partners, Spartan Group,  SVK Crypto, Tokentus, 3commas, Wintermute, Yellow and Zhou Holdings.

Building the digital asset economy of the future?

Founded in 2018 and led by CEO Anthony Foy, Qredo provides digital asset management infrastructure and product suite that is designed to unlock new opportunities for institutional investors in cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance.

The platform provides API and Software Development Kit (SDK) based encryption solutions for data security, privacy, anonymity, and compliance. Its SDK is available for the deployment of mobile, web apps, IoT, bitcoin, the blockchain, mobile, and web apps. 

The company’s technology is based on Qredo’s patent-pending Zero-Knowledge storage and communication protocols to prevent mass data breaches.

According to the company, its Gen 2.0 Multi-Party Computation (MPC) provides tier-1 bank security and eliminates the anxiety of private key management. Its network is designed to enable institutional investors to secure, settle, and access digital liquidity pools and participate in new innovations across DeFi.

Foy says, “The next generation of DeFi players will be institutions, and these companies are actively looking for ways to enter the crypto market in a secure and compliant manner without sacrificing their ability to respond to economic opportunities.” 

The technology

Qredo uses a novel blockchain protocol that enables users to access cryptocurrencies on Layer 1 blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, over a Layer 2 network. This innovation allows users to securely participate in new DeFi innovations such as accessing ‘cross-chain’ liquidity pools, trading collateralised derivatives, and executing cross-chain atomic swaps.

Since its inception, Qredo has worked with established leaders in the crypto industry to develop innovative solutions. Besides the financial investors, Qredo has also attracted a group of strategic investors, including Celsius, Deribit, Wintermute, GSR, CMS Holdings, Kronos Research, and 3commas.

Qredo version 1 mainnet is live today, and the company operates 24 nodes in 6 tier 4 data centres, including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Chicago, and London. The successful release of version 1 has allowed Qredo to build, test, and operate prior to transitioning to version 2 decentralisation. In addition, validators on version 2 are able to earn QRDO governance tokens as incentives through a novel revenue-sharing mechanism within the network.

Use of the capital

Foy, CEO of Qredo, says, “This funding will help us continue building this critical technology to bridge the gap between the security and governance of traditional finance and the rapidly evolving new world of DeFi.”

The capital will help Qredo double its R&D team and bring in additional talent at the C-suite level, along with Qredo’s anticipated version 2 launch. With version 2, Qredo claims to move closer to achieving its ultimate goal of transitioning to a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).