Delphi Digital Spearheads zkLend for $5m in Seed Funding

zkLend, a Layer-2 (L2) money-market protocol built on StarkNet has raised the sum of $5 million in seed funding from investors led by Delphi Digital. 

As unveiled by the protocol, the funding round also enjoined participation from various stakeholders, including StarkWare, Three Arrows Capital, Genesis Block Ventures, Alameda Research, CMS, MetaCartel DAO, DCVC, Amber Group, among other leading Web 3.0 angels.

zkLend is building a next-generation money market on StarkNet. It seeks to champion the belief that the innovations behind zk-rollups are the ultimate answer to the congestion woes on the Ethereum blockchain. The startup has two unique products, including Artemis, designed for Decentralized retail Finance (DeFi) users, and Apollo, a whitelisted institutional solution for borrowing and lending.

The startup said it will use the new funding to launch both products highlighted, as it seeks to position both as the goto money legos in the emerging world of the StarkNet layer-2 protocol. While the Artemis product is slated for the third quarter of this year, institutional investors will not be able to gain access to Apollos until 2023.

While investors’ focus is primarily on NFT and metaverse related protocols in the emerging Web3.0 ecosystem, it is becoming more prevalent to see Layer-2 protocols get funding to build out their solutions. 

As reported earlier this month by Blockchain.News, an Israeli startup, StarkNet was on track to receive the sum of $100 million from investors, as it joined the host of related protocols building a zk-rollup solution. 

While the broader digital currency ecosystem is still warming up to the potential of these new technologies solutions, the backing of protocols creating solutions in this niche by industry leaders like Vitalik Buterin is a sign that shows promises for their future.

To aid its mission and vision, zkLend said it will also be hiring new staff across tech, marketing, and business development.

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