UK-based startup Ostium Labs creators of a decentralised non-custodial perpetuals exchange for real-world assets, has raised a $3.5 million Seed round. The round was led by General Catalyst and LocalGlobe and saw participation from SIG, DeFi Alliance, Balaji Srinivasan (former Coinbase CTO), Vessel Capital, and others.
The fresh funding will fuel the launch of Ostium Protocol ‘an on-chain trading hub for real-world assets (RWAs), enabling traders to seamlessly gain price exposure to a variety of asset classes previously unavailable on-chain’.
“Perpetuals have grown exponentially in the last eighteen months. Yet the market lacks a dedicated platform for traders who want direct on-chain exposure to a broader range of asset classes. We're building Ostium to fill this gap, and drive the next wave of mainstream adoption by accelerating the transition of RWAs from narrative to reality." said Kaledora Kiernan-Linn, co-founder of Ostium. who interestingly is a former professional ballerina with the Royal Danish Ballet.
Keirnan-Linn met co-founder Marco Antonio at Harvard before both working for Bridgwater Associates. It was while trading DeFi and traditional markets that they became frustrated with the pain points. Antionio has an interesting background too, he’s a Portuguese International Physics and Math Olympiad medalist.
“We believe that new financial primitives like Ostium will contribute to the much-needed upgrade of the system for all financial assets,” says Kyle Doherty, Managing Director at General Catalyst and Nick van Eck, Partner at General Catalyst. “Ostium is focused on enabling a greater set of assets, beyond crypto-native tokens, to be traded on-chain from FX to commodities. We are excited to share in the company’s values and partner."
Lead image: Marco Antonio and Kaledora Kiernan-Linn founders of Ostium Labs. Photo: Uncredited.
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