Kelp DAO, a platform specializing in liquid restaking, has announced the successful closure of a $9 million private sale round, marking a significant achievement in its mission to advance decentralized finance (DeFi) and the restaking landscape.

Leading the round with a combined investment of $3.5 million are SCB Limited, a proprietary trading firm based in the Bahamas, and Laser Digital, the digital asset arm of Nomura Global. Other notable investors in the round include Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere, Draper Dragon, DACM, Cypher Capital, ArkStream, Cluster Capital, GSR, Longhash, Side Door Ventures, NOIA Capital, HTX Ventures, Avid3, ViaBTC Capital, DWF Ventures, Coinseeker, and many others.

These funds add to the platform's existing success, with over $850 million in Total Value Locked (TVL) and more than 40,000 active restakers. The funds will be utilized to enhance the platform’s capabilities, expand into other ecosystems like Solana and Bitcoin, and continue innovating restaking solutions.

The funding round reflects confidence from global investors, with support from notable angel investors in the crypto community, including Scott (Cofounder of Gitcoin), Alex (CEO of Nansen), Sam K (Cofounder of Frax), Marc Zeller (Aave Chan Initiative), Saurabh Sharma (Jump Crypto), Amrit (COO of Altlayer), Anthony (Cofounder of Swissborg), and Winslow Strong (Mr. Block).

Dheeraj Borra, Co-founder of Kelp DAO, expressed excitement about the fundraise, stating, “This fundraise propels our expansion in the market and sharpens our focus on building customer-centric solutions. It’s truly thrilling to have our investors share that vision.” Both Kelp DAO founders, Amitej Gajjala and Dheeraj Borra, expressed gratitude for the support of investors in driving Kelp DAO towards scaling new heights in restaking solutions.

Jez Mohideen, CEO of Laser Digital, affirmed their support for the project, stating, “We are very excited to support Kelp DAO and the passionate team in its journey towards building innovative restaking infrastructure solutions.”

This sentiment was echoed by Jack Platts, Co-founder of Hypersphere Ventures, who said, “We’re excited by the prospect of restaking enabling more developer experimentation and use cases. Kelp’s proven team and focus on user experience are playing a key role in this restaking’s early success. We look forward to the team executing on its vision of enhancing yields and optionality for ETH stakers.”

About Kelp DAO:

Kelp DAO is a leading liquid restaking protocol with over $850 million in assets under management across 45,000+ restakers. Their liquid restaked token (LRT) was the first to hit the Ethereum mainnet and pioneered liquid restaking with liquid staking tokens. Currently, Kelp DAO facilitates liquid restaking for native ETH and LSTs alike across Ethereum mainnet and 8 L2 networks.

About Laser Digital:

Backed by Nomura, Laser Digital delivers scalable, robust opportunities across trading, asset management, and ventures. The team operates with high-risk management standards, compliance, and commercial viability, driven by a belief in more responsible crypto innovation.