Haruko, a company that powers institutional access to digital assets worldwide, announced that it has closed a $10 million seed funding round to facilitate institutional crypto investors.
The funding round was led by Portage Ventures and White Star Capital. Haruko mentioned that the recent investment will support its mission of becoming the one-stop-shop for institutional cryptocurrency investors. According to Haruko, several institutional clients, including leading hedge funds are already using its product.
The company’s product enables institutions to interact with cryptocurrency markets on decentralized as well as centralized exchanges. Shamyl Malik, the CEO of Haruko, believes that innovative technology-driven solutions are necessary to drive the institutional adoption of digital assets.
"Over the last year, Haruko has come a long way. We have successfully brought our platform to market, providing the technology layer that brings institutional capital to the digital-assets ecosystem. We are grateful to our team of incredibly hard-working and dedicated engineers and to our strategic partners for their immense support,” Malik said.
With a mission to remove the barriers to institutional involvement in the global digital asset ecosystem, the company is planning to increase its operation through the latest funding.
Crypto Adoption
The adoption of digital assets among institutions around the world has surged substantially in the last few years. In 2021, BNY Mellon, one of the largest financial services providers in the US, announced the establishment of a new digital asset unit. Additionally, the company is planning to launch crypto custody-related services for institutions. As a result of the latest institutional crypto adoption, leading players in the ecosystem raised significant funding. Institutional-grade Bitcoin platform, NYDIG recently raised $1 billion for its expansion and reached the valuation of $7 billion.
"Many current solutions require a level of trust that institutions can't afford to give. We believe Haruko has successfully combined financial and technical expertise to engineer institutional-grade services that put crypto trading on par with other asset classes,” Stephanie Choo, a Partner at Portage Ventures, commented on Haruko’s funding round.
