Squid raises $3.5m to build next-generation cross-chain swaps
Squid, a Zug, Switzerland-based provider of a routing protocol that enables users and developers to easily access cross-chain liquidity, raised a $3.5m seed round led by North Island Ventures.
Leading crypto investment firms Distributed Global, Fabric Ventures, Galileo, Chapter One, and Node Capital also participated in the round. Angels included Waikit Lau, Stani Kulechov, Zaki Manian, Dean Eigenmann, 7, Ashleigh Schap and others. Axelar is also participating in the round as a strategic investment. In addition to this seed funding, Squid was one of the first projects to receive funding following the Axelar Developer Grants cohort.
Sergey Gorbunov, Co-founder, Axelar: "Failure of centralized trading platforms has highlighted the need for secure decentralized alternatives. Squid powers this future by enabling decentralized, secure, and simple to use cross-chain swaps. The Squid team has extensive experience in the space and we're excited to see them build on the Axelar Network."
Squid inherits its speed and security from Axelar's secure cross-chain communication platform alongside General Message Passing, meaning that Squid's contracts enable further cross-chain logic. Squid can be used to buy NFTs on any chain with any asset, deposit into a margin account on a decentralized derivatives exchange, build payments to any chain, or to turn wallets chain-agnostic.
Squid supports 25 blockchains, including EVM and Cosmos chains. Since its app chain thesis became a reality, Cosmos has experienced immense growth and adoption. Squid offers the easiest path for onboarding to new Cosmos chains from any ecosystem. Squid has received four audits from Ackee Blockchain and Consensys Diligence.
Travis Scher, Managing Partner, North Island Ventures: "We believe the future of crypto is multi-chain and cross-chain, and are extremely excited to back the great team at Squid, which is building critical infrastructure to bring this vision to fruition."
DEXs including QuickSwap, Pangolin, SpookySwap, StellaSwap, and Trisolaris and wallets such as Ledger and BitKeep are the first projects who have announced their integration with Squid to give users access to native tokens on a wide range of other chains.
Recent events highlight the importance of decentralized applications as a secure, transparent alternative to centralized systems. Squid's mission is to help build a future that ensures the integrity of financial transactions and allows users control over their assets.
Interviews.
[Interview] Caroline Mutuku, General Manager, Glovo, Kenya
Caroline Mutuku is Kenya's General Manager of multi-category app Glovo. Caroline joined Glovo in December 2022 from Swvl Kenya where she also served as the General Manager from December 2021. In this interview...read more here
[Interview] Renate Swanepoel, COO, INC. Networking
Renate Swanepoel is an entrepreneur, global networker and inspirational speaker that has helped thousands of people around the world to find their purpose. She has gained significant networking and communication...read more here
[Interview] Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer, FSD Africa
Anne-Marie Chidzero is the Chief Investment Officer at the Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) Investments. In this interview, she talks about the risks and opportunities in backing Africa’s early-stage startups...read more here
[Interview] James Kilpatrick, Chair, Gravitilab, UK
Gravitilab is a "Space as a Service" business providing research, testing and qualification facilities to space agencies, government, academia and commercial enterprises. The company’s Chair and Chief Finance Officer...read more here
[Interview] Ramanjeet Singh, CEO, Woosper, USA
Woosper is a US-based digital advertising and marketing agency focused on creating experiences that help clients discover their place in the digital world. The CEO Ramanjeet Singh...read more here