There’s Yet Another Crypto Unicorn

Gauntlet Networks, a financial modeling and simulation platform for blockchains, has reached unicorn status after the latest funding round, Bloomberg reports.  
It raked in $23.8 million during a funding round led by a fintech-focused Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm.    
Tarun Chitra, an ex-programmer at multinational investment management firm D. E. Shaw & Co, launched Gauntlet Networks back in 2018. Chitra dipped his toes into blockchain and Bitcoin mining all the way back in 2011.   
Originally launched as a ratings agency, the New Work-based company then pivoted to decentralized finance, calibrating risk parameters, setting risk parameters and optimizing collateral factors. In such a way, DeFi protocols can substantially improve their capital efficiency.
Paradigm, Polychain Capital, First Round Capital, and Coinbase Ventures are among the company’s top investors.
Its clients include such prominent DeFi projects as Aave, Synthetix and Compound. Some clients are willing to pay Gauntlet Networks millions a year in order to manage their risks. As reported by U.Today, Acala, a parachain on the Polkadot network, announced a partnership with Gauntlet Networks in April. Polychain Capital also plans to expand into the gaming sector.  
Presently, the company has a 32-strong team, and Chitra claims that he plans to expand the team with the help of the freshly injected funding amid mushrooming demand for crypto analytics platforms.   
Chitra claims that it is getting increasingly challenging to process data because of the growth of the sector.  
The total value locked in Ethereum-based DeFi protocols currently stands at $110.8 billion, according to data provided by Defi Llama.