Claiming to be the first DeFi exotic structured products protocol, Cega Finance has raised $4.3 million in its seed funding round launched in January this year. The seed investment round alone has taken the company’s total valuation to $60 million.
The oversubscribed round saw participation from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Solana Ventures, and others, with Dragonfly Capital Partners as the lead investor.
The Singapore-based DeFi protocol was founded by former UBS derivatives trader Arisa Toyosaki in 2020. It plans to bring “exotic derivative capabilities to crypto” and tap the multi-trillion-dollar DeFi derivatives market. Toyosaki commented on the announcement:
“DeFi experienced >300% CAGR in the last 2 years and has 4M users today. We believe that a product offering which generates high yields and better safety for users during the volatile period of crypto expansion will be essential to the growth of the entire ecosystem.”
Cega is built upon the Solana blockchain, but plans to expand to other blockchains and become compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem, Toyosaki told TechCrunch in an interview. She later elaborated on the protocol’s first exotic options product, which is the fixed coupon note that offers superior yield, built-in downside protection, and compounded returns.
The protocol plans to use the new funding to expand its team of engineers, diversify its product offerings, create a DeFi-focused community centered on Cega, and educate users about DeFi and derivatives.
