DeFi Argent Wallet Raises $40M, Targets Gaming

By Kiana Griffin Blockchain, Crypto News, NFT News 0 Comments

Argent, a London-based startup looking to build a DeFi super app, has raised $40 million in a Series B round.

The investment was led by Metaplanet, an investment company owned by Fabric Ventures and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn . The round also included existing investors Paradigm, Index Ventures and Creandum, as well as new strategic backers Starkware, Jump Crypto and Animoca Brands.

The funds raised will reportedly be used to accelerate Argent’s plans to support a wider range of DeFi and Web3 activities.

“Argent still feels very finance-focused and we want to play a bigger role in other NFT verticals — like NFT gaming, virtual real estate,” said co-founder and CEO Itamar Lesuisse. We want to be the de facto gaming wallet.”“Argent still feels very finance-focused and we want to play a bigger role in other NFT verticals — like NFT gaming, virtual real estate,” said co-founder and CEO Itamar Lesuisse. We want to be the de facto gaming wallet.”wallet.”

Realizing this vision will include rolling out new features for crypto gaming, such as infrastructure for connecting new players and signing in-game transactions.

Currently, Argent users can store certain non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in their wallets by connecting to marketplaces such as OpenSea.

Mexican direction

Proceeds from the increase will also be used to expand Argent’s services in Latin America, starting with Mexico, where Lesuisse sees strong demand for the product. Part of the money will also go towards hiring in-house legal and financial specialists to manage the treasury, as well as setting up a new research team to focus on layer-two protocols, Lesuys said.

Founded in 2017, Argent resembles a “smart wallet” fintech app, but built for DeFi, allowing users to buy, store, and send cryptocurrencies. Argent says more than 500,000 people have signed up for his app.

In March, the startup officially launched a new version of its crypto wallet based on zkSync , an Ethereum-focused scaling solution with the broad goal of reducing the cost and environmental impact of interacting with DeFi.

Argent also built a wallet called Argent X on rival Ethereum scaling solution StarkNet, so Lesuisse called Starkware’s participation in the Series B round strategic.