Parallel Finance, the leading decentralized lending and staking protocol that aims to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to the mainstream, today announced that Section 32, Coinbase, and other strategic funds have invested a combined $5M into Parallel Finance, for a total valuation of $500M in their latest extended strategic round.

This new funding will further accelerate multiple strategic objectives that empower Parallel Finance’s users, including building products beyond the Polkadot space and entering ETH and NFT-related DeFi groups. As mass adoption continues, it is crucial that the DeFi sector remain focused on building infrastructures to address industry growth.

“As we continue to pursue our mission of empowering users and bringing DeFi to mainstream society, we are beyond grateful to our investment partners for their support,” said Yubo Ruan, Founder of Parallel Finance. “The partnership of these impactful companies is a testament to the value that Parallel Finance provides and we are looking forward to reaching our fullest potential with innovative products and offerings for our users to enjoy.”

Section 32 is a venture capital fund investing at the frontiers of technology and healthcare. Founded by Bill Maris, previously the CEO and founder of Google Venture, the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc, the team has vast experience building iconic companies. The firm’s goal is to improve the human condition by accelerating the discovery, development and distribution of important technologies and life-saving medicines. Section 32 invests across the entirety of technology and life sciences.

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“As DeFi continues to emerge, technical advancement, enhanced scalability and consumer accessibility are imperative,” said Andy Harrison, managing partner at Section 32. “We believe that Parallel Finance has the potential to change how consumers interact with DeFi and provide substantial industry growth in Polkadot and beyond.”

Coinbase is a platform that helps more than 89 million people and businesses buy, sell and manage crypto. Started in 2012 with the premise that anyone, anywhere, should be able to send and receive Bitcoin, Coinbase effectively powers the cryptoeconomy, creating a more fair, accessible, efficient and transparent financial system.

StarkWare raised 80M from Sequoia and executed half a trillion in trading volume since their launch on Ethereum in June 2020. StarkWare offers blockchain scaling services through “STARK” proofs, which are Ethereum-based products using rollups technology. These solutions include StarkEx, a standalone permissioned Validity-Rollup, and StarkNet, a permissionless decentralized ZK-Rollup. Both enable a secure, trustless and scalable operation for blockchain applications.