Gauntlet Networks closed a $125 million Series C funding round with SBI Holdings as the sole investor to scale its blockchain risk modeling infrastructure, expand stablecoin coverage, and accelerate institutional on-chain offerings.
Gauntlet Networks closed a $125 million Series C financing round led solely by SBI Holdings, Inc. This represents the company’s largest funding round to date, significantly exceeding its previous ~$24 million Series B in 2022 (which took the company to a $1 billion valuation). Total funding now stands at approximately $169–170 million.
What is Gauntlet Networks?
Gauntlet, founded in 2018 by Tarun Chitra (CEO, with a quant background from D.E. Shaw Research and Vatic Labs) and co-founder Rei Chiang (CTO), specializes in quantitative risk management, simulation, and yield optimization for DeFi and onchain finance. It has evolved from protocol risk modeling and stress testing into a full stack “yield curator” focused on institutional grade vaults.
Key offerings include:
- Vault Curation: Actively managed, risk optimized vaults (e.g., on Morpho) across lending, restaking, and multi strategy opportunities. These handle large scale inflows efficiently, as demonstrated by absorbing and recovering from a $775M supply event while maintaining APYs.
- Risk Management: Model driven frameworks with human oversight, proven across market cycles, protecting capital in protocols and now extended to institutional treasuries, fintechs, and stablecoin issuers.
- Integrations and Infrastructure: Partnerships with entities like Privy (embedded yield in smart wallets), Blockdaemon, Elwood, Tempo, KAST (serving 500K users via Gauntlet USD Alpha), and others. It curates over $1.5 billion in supplied assets and integrates with 150+ fintechs/institutions.
- Aera Infrastructure: Composable, customizable vaults backed by Gauntlet’s risk engine.
- Broader Mandate: Bridging TradFi and DeFi, including RWA tokenization, stablecoin yield (USD, expanding to MXN, JPY, etc.), and onchain treasury management.
The company emphasizes institutional grade security (e.g., Hypernative, Zeroshadow, Chainalysis integrations) and data driven strategies for sustainable, risk-adjusted returns.
Solo Investor Structure: SBI Holdings as the sole participant signals strong conviction from a major Japanese financial conglomerate (publicly listed, market cap in the billions). This differs from prior rounds involving investors like Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, Polychain, Dragonfly, and others.
How will Gauntlet Networks use the funds?
- Scaling infrastructure for traditional capital markets integration, with expanded stablecoin coverage (beyond USD/EUR).
- Global team growth, leveraging AI for operational scale.
- Strategic capital deployment to bootstrap new onchain offerings.
Valuation: Not publicly disclosed for this round (CEO Tarun Chitra declined to specify). Prior $1B post Series B valuation provides context; some sources reference figures around $620M in certain data sets, but market conditions and growth since 2022 suggest a substantial step-up or maintenance in the unicorn+ range amid a maturing crypto market.
Tarun Chitra’s Commentary: Vaults are positioned as a “major revolution” akin to ETFs for equities, expected to accelerate DeFi growth faster than stablecoin expansion. The SBI partnership aids global scaling, especially in Asia and with regulatory tailwinds.
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SBI Holdings’ Perspective (Yoshitaka Kitao): Aligns with bridging TradFi and onchain finance. Emphasis on risk management for investor confidence, yen stablecoin rollout (H2 2026), and readiness for digital asset products amid U.S. regulatory progress (GENIUS Act, CLARITY Act). SBI sees digital assets as foundational, with the investment supporting Japan/Asia/global infrastructure.
Market Context and Implications
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- Timing: Comes amid broader crypto recovery, regulatory clarity in the U.S., and institutional interest in onchain yield. Stablecoins and tokenization are key growth vectors; Gauntlet’s curation expertise addresses risk and optimization needs at scale.
- Competitive Positioning: Stands out with 8+ years of DeFi risk experience, quantitative rigor, and proven large scale performance. Shift to vault curation and institutional services differentiates it from pure protocol tools or passive yield aggregators.
- Growth Trajectory: Revenue grew 20x+ in the year leading to Series B; current TVL curation ($1.5B+), partnerships, and product launches (e.g., Morpho vaults, integrations) indicate continued momentum. The round funds international expansion and TradFi-DeFi bridging.
- Risks and Opportunities: Success hinges on execution in volatile markets, regulatory evolution, and competition. Opportunities include RWA/tokenization boom, stablecoin proliferation, and institutional adoption. SBI’s network provides unique Asia/U.S. bridge advantages.
- Advisor: Financial Technology Partners acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor.
This funding underscores Gauntlet’s transition from DeFi-native risk specialist to a pivotal infrastructure player in the institutional onchain economy, backed by a strategic TradFi giant positioned for the next phase of digital asset integration. The capital infusion strengthens its ability to innovate in vault strategies, risk frameworks, and global market coverage.
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