A startup founded during the early days of DeFi is now backed by a financial giant. Gauntlet, which helps institutions and crypto firms allocate their digital assets, raised $125 million from the Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings, the startup’s founder and CEO Tarun Chitra told Fortune.
The round closed in June and had no other participants, he said, declining to specify at what valuation he raised the money. The fundraise is the biggest infusion of capital into Gauntlet since its founding in 2018 and dwarfs the startup’s Series B in 2022, when it raised almost $24 million at a $1 billion valuation in a round led by the marquee fintech investor Ribbit Capital.
