Fordefi Raises $18M Seed Round to Launch Institutional DeFi Wallet and Security Platform

Fordefi, a financial technology and software company, today announced an $18 million seed round and the public launch of its institutional MPC wallet built for transacting on decentralized applications (dApps). Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, the investors of the firm's initial capital raise also include Electric Capital, Alameda Research, Jump Crypto, Castle Island, Pantera Capital, Illuminate Financial, PayPal Alumni Fund, Nima Capital, Digital Currency Group, Defiance Capital and StarkWare.

"The Fordefi team is bringing to market a solution that addresses two of the biggest challenges in DeFi today: institutional-grade security and smart contract transparency," said Sam Harrison, Senior Advisor at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Managing Partner at Faction. "We are excited to support an experienced team bringing a powerful solution to market that directly solves pain points that have held institutions back from achieving the full potential of decentralized finance."

"Wallet hacks made major headlines this year. Until now, decentralized finance was missing a secure, stable, and seamless way to connect to dApps," said Ken Deeter, Partner at Electric Capital. "Fordefi's single-browser extension paired with a top-notch institutional grade MPC wallet platform will unlock opportunities across DeFi for all crypto-native institutions. We're excited to be part of Fordefi's journey, as an investor, design partner and customer."

Introducing the Fordefi Platform

Co-founders Josh Schwartz, CEO, Dima Kogan, CTO, and Michael Volfman, Vice President of Research and Development, began developing the Fordefi platform in 2021, an unprecedented year for crypto adoption, as institutions took notice of the explosive growth and massive volumes of digital assets moved into the markets. A boom in the development of new blockchains and decentralized applications created opportunities for investing that institutions could not safely participate in, as available wallets had been designed years before and lacked the technology to securely and confidently connect them.

"Decentralized finance is evolving quickly and its complexities require a dynamic solution," said Schwartz. "Legacy wallet providers are unable to meet the needs of institutions that want to access the new opportunities DeFi has created while ensuring their assets are protected. Fordefi has taken a DeFi-first approach and has built a solution engineered for how clients interact with dApps."

"DeFi transactions are much more complex than simple asset transfers, and that's the key to DeFi's exciting new opportunities," said Kogan. "Unfortunately, this complexity also brings with it many new security risks. Fordefi enables institutions to interact with DeFi applications with increased operational efficiency and security through in-depth visibility into each transaction and the ability to set the right controls."

A first of its kind wallet and security platform, Fordefi enables market participants to easily and securely connect to decentralized applications. Fordefi's platform is the only institutional MPC wallet on the market built for firms transacting on decentralized applications across blockchains. The solution delivers a previously unavailable degree of insight into transactions, translating smart contracts into language that users can understand, simulating every transaction in advance and independently verifying dApp names. Its advanced MPC key management capabilities are built to protect against any single point of failure, and the platform's unique policy management capabilities offer users the ability to create and define their own workflows, proactively protecting themselves from both internal and external vulnerabilities.

"Fordefi has been a tremendous addition to our DeFi workflow. We've seen accelerated deployment efficiency across a comprehensive set of on-chain opportunities, alongside enhanced user intuitiveness and without compromising security." Shane Al, Head of Investments at Arc Capital and Fordefi design partner.

"The Fordefi platform provides robust solutions for institutions to access thousands of DeFi opportunities with the highest levels of security. The platform is extremely customizable and allows us to manage our own policies and controls, ensuring a balance between flexibility and security - crucial for liquid fund strategies." Jacob Goh, Head of Operations & Investor Relations at DeFiance Capital, Fordefi investor and design partner.

About Fordefi
Fordefi's MPC wallet platform and Web3 gateway enables institutions to seamlessly connect to dApps across a wide range of chains while keeping digital assets secure. Fordefi is the first institutional MPC wallet and security platform built for decentralized finance (DeFi), offering MPC key management, self-serve DeFi policy controls, time-of-transaction smart contract insights, transaction simulation and risk alerts. Fordefi was founded in 2021 by crypto custody and cybersecurity experts, and designed in close collaboration with industry-leading trading firms, funds and custodians. Fordefi is a financial technology and software company with offices in New York and Tel Aviv.

About Fordefi's Founders
Josh Schwartz, Dima Kogan and Michael Volfman founded Fordefi after establishing themselves with decades of experience as leaders in crypto, cybersecurity, and financial services. Schwartz served as Chief Operating Officer at Curv, an institutional MPC wallet acquired by PayPal in 2021, and was Vice President of Sales at digital custody platform BitGo. Dr. Kogan's career spans more than 15 years in academia, industry and government. He received his PhD from Stanford with a specialization in applied cryptography and was awarded the "Best Young Researcher" prize at Eurocrypt 2018, the Theory of Cryptography Conference 2019, and Eurocrypt 2020. Volfman is an engineering manager with 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, serving as Vice President of R&D at Toka, was Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of an edtech startup, and a Director at Guardicore.