Juno raises $3M for a 'neo banking' platform built on Ethereum

Ethereum • October 10, 2019, 4:53PM EDT
The Block

Juno has raised a $3 million seed round to build a platform leveraging cryptocurrencies and Ethereum protocols to provide "neo banking" services like high-yield savings and debit cards. The round was led by investors including Polychain Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Dragonfly Capital.

Juno was founded by the same founders of Ethereum lending protocol Nuo. The firm's core feature is a savings account leveraging the Nuo protocol, offering 5.5% annual interest on USDC deposits. According to Juno co-founder Varun Deshpande, Juno is part of Nuo's "full stack DeFi strategy where we not only simplifying the user experience and acquire new users to DeFi but also lock liquidity within our ecosystem so that we can manage the entire user journey..."

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Unlike similar lending products built on Ethereum, Juno users will not be directly exposed to the volatility of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Instead, Deshpande and his team will be "removing the complexities of web 3.0 and volatility of crypto assets" by presenting an easily accessible interface.

"A simple user interface is extremely critical for making DeFi mainstream," Deshpande tells The Block.

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Steven Zheng is a researcher for The Block. He joined The Block in August 2018. Steven graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in economics. Previously, he covered blockchain and crypto at Radicle, a startup analytics firm. He also had brief stints at Cheddar, a media startup, and Bowery Capital, a venture capital firm. He owns bitcoin. Follow Steven on Twitter at: @Dogetoshi

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