The decentralized finance (DeFi) deep liquidity provider, WOO Network has raised an additional $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Binance Labs. On January 4, Binance Labs announced the $12 million strategic investment in the WOO Network, which is the second leg of the Series A funding round. In November last year, WOO Network raised 30 million from firms, such as BitTorrent, Avalanche, Crypto.com Capital and Three Arrows Capital participating in the event. The DeFi platform plans to use the newly raised funding for rapid expansion through research and development, talent acquisition, and development of new decentralized products.
The announcement showed that WOO Network began offering liquidity on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) last year.
Ran Yi, the Chief of Ecosystem Development at WOO Network, recognized Binance as the largest exchange with the highest concentration of users and volume. “Getting the opportunity to formalize our relationship with Binance will allow us to rapidly accelerate our growth by working closer with Binance across all their industry verticals,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, Peter Huo, the Labs Investment Director at Binance, stated: "Woo Network adds significant value to the crypto ecosystem by providing deep liquidity and zero-fee trading both on- and off-chain. We are excited to expand our long-lasting relationship and explore further collaborations, especially on [Binance Smart Chain]".
Last year, WOO Network launched WOOFI, a DEX with low slippage and the best possible pricing. It started providing liquidity on the Binance SMART chain. WOOFI Swap uses the institutional market-making techniques and liquidity network to reduce slippage and improve pricing. WOO Network offers liquidity to more than 40 institutions, wallets, trading teams, exchanges and decentralized applications. For instance, the platform offers liquidity to decentralized protocols like DODO, ParaSwap, DYDX, 1inch and Matcha. Other products being offered by the company include the retail-focused WOO X, which combines deep liquidity and zero-free trading, and WOO Trade, a platform for institutional investors.
Why VCs Are Investing Billions into Crypto
The development by Binance Labs leading the fundraising event in the WOO Network comes at a time when the crypto industry is seeing fast maturity, with many people comparing it with the gold rush. With the industry’s maturity, users are starting to see a flood of retail and traditional investors flocking to the crypto and blockchain landscape. Moreover, venture capital funds such as Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Fenbushi Capital and other institutional investors are increasingly eyeing crypto and blockchain businesses to see if there is profit to be made in financing them. Also, cryptocurrency startups have plenty of equity, and the general public is turning to view them as viable investment vehicles. Fund managers of various crypto and blockchain startups send out prospectus (proposal) to potential investors inviting them to participate in fundraising events. However, VC fund managers spend a significant amount of time reviewing thousands of crypto and blockchain projects to determine growth potential. Furthermore, venture capital firms are normally prudent investors, and they like to spread their bets.
