Uniswap Labs has raised $165 million in a new funding round as the world’s largest decentralized foreign exchange parent company looks to expand its offerings.
The Series B funding was led by Polychain Capital, the startup said. The news confirms a TechCrunch scoop late last month that said Uniswap Labs is looking to raise $100 million to $200 million and is getting involved with Polychain.
Uniswap Labs said it is valued at $1.66 billion in the new funding. Existing backers a16z crypto, Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant participated in the new round.
According to Diffi Lama, the decentralized exchange commands 64% of all DEX volumes. And the exchange’s protocol token has a market cap of nearly $5 billion, despite the market downturn. (During the peak of last year’s bull cycle, the market cap of the U.N. exceeded $22.5 billion.)
In recent months, Uniswap Labs has shared plans to add “several new products.” One of the new offerings will allow customers to trade NFTs on Uniswap from multiple marketplaces and the other is a wallet, people familiar with the matter said.
“Now Uniswap Labs is bringing the powerful simplicity and security that defined the Uniswap protocol by investing in our web app and developer tools, launching NFTs, going mobile – and more,” the company said in a blog post.
“As Uniswap Labs focuses on products, a wider ecosystem will grow and develop than any company can do on its own. For example, the management community recently voted to create the Uniswap Foundation, which will contribute to the decentralized development of the protocol and provide at least $60 million in support for community projects over the next few years.
The funding — one of the largest Series Bs this year — comes as the market’s downturn has eroded investors’ willingness to write new checks. VC investment in crypto startups fell 37% year over year to $4.44B in the quarter ended in September, the industry’s lowest level in more than a year, according to Pitchbook.
