Zapper – a rising DeFi asset management platform – has just closed a $50k investment from MetaCartel Ventures.
We are proud to announce our 2nd investment as a DAO, into Zapper Finance (@zapper_fi), an interface that makes DeFi easy and simple to use ⚡️
:: [ Originally a MetaCartel grantee, we are proud to back them on their next leg of the journey ] ::https://t.co/Lu3FlPmHtz
— METACARTEL VENTURES (@VENTURE_DAO) July 3, 2020
Zapper – a project which recently formed as a merger between DeFiZap and DeFiSnap – has been making big headway for its intuitive dashboard to track and deploy capital into popular yield farming opportunities.
For those who missed it, we caught up with the project’s CEO – Nodar Janasia – just after they won Kyber’s DeFi hackathon, solidifying the runway for one of the fastest-growing DeFi platforms.
This investment marks the second for the rising for-profit DAO, following their lead in Reflexer Labs to create RAI – a reflexive stablecoin.
Why Zapper?
When asked about the investment in Zapper, MCV Blood Mage pet3rpan told DeFi Rate “they are one of the most forward-thinking teams in DeFi”.
Best exemplified by their recent deployment of Pool Pipes, Zapper allows users to quickly shift liquidity around the rapidly evolving DeFi landscape in a few clicks, all from one unified dashboard.
> End-users are forced to adopt to different interfaces
> Hard to monitor assets across different protocols
> With greater composability comes greater risk
> Nobody wants to keep up but everyone wants to take advantage of opportunities
Enter https://t.co/HliBGQQBo1 pic.twitter.com/rGoulI0t69
— METACARTEL VENTURES (@VENTURE_DAO) July 3, 2020
Additionally, Zapper was a great place for users to harness yield farming opportunities like Synthetix’s sETH/ETH Uniswap incentives – giving users the ability to stake and claim rewards in a few clicks. Synthetix has since ended the sETH rewards, but that’s not to say this same principle can not be applied to the vast amount of other yield farming opportunities now popping up.
Backed with the ability to enter Balancer pools and collect BAL rewards and Curvepools to earn CRV (among others), it’s clear that Zapper has their finger on the pulse when it comes to staying up with the latest DeFi onramps.
Why MetaCartel Ventures?
Turning the tables around, this investment comes with additional sentiment to Zapper’s grassroots origins. When asked why Zapper partnered with MCV, Nodar told DeFi Rate “the investment was not about money.” adding that “it was more about expanding our network and partnering with the best builders and researchers from our industry.”
Taking this a step further, Janashia commented that “We have been building Zapper together with the community from day one and we intend to remain grassroots.” To this, “MCV was the perfect fit as they share these core values”.
From @defisnap‘s humble beginnings, it’s crazy to look at how much happened in so little time. I’m very excited to have @zapper_fi be a part of @VENTURE_DAO.
For a little dose of nostalgia, here’s the first time I posted about DefiSnap in the @synthetix_io discord. https://t.co/PgblFzkufg pic.twitter.com/ueAoEH1zD2
— Seb Audet (@sebaudet26) July 3, 2020
Perhaps best highlighted by MetaCartel’s community signal, this investment comes as a follow on to DeFiZap’s first MetaCartel grant in the fall of 2019.
Now, the two projects seek to take Zapper to the next level with a suite of product and ecosystem initiatives that are set to take the asset management platform to the next level.
Closing Thoughts
As DeFi continues to heat up, the capacity for new users to easily enter various yield farming opportunities becomes ever more important. What’s more, is that Zapper has always placed a strong focus on risk analysis – guiding users towards investments that best suite their risk tolerance.
With this in mind, Zapper is quickly evolving into a go-to platform for those keen to get involved with DeFi who are not quite ready to go super deep down the rabbit hole.
As a user of Zapper, I can confidently say the platform has a ton of potential and that fact that all of this has been done with little to no fundraising is a strong testament to Zapper’s mission to focus on shipping at all costs.
To stay up with Zapper, follow them on Twitter or join the conversation on Discord.
Cooper is the Editor of DeFi Rate and an active contributor to leading DeFi media outlets like The Defiant, DeFi Pulse, and Bankless. He works with early-stage teams through Fire Eyes DAO to incubate governance models and grassroots community development. He is an ambassador to Set Protocol and an author of a weekly publication called Token Tuesdays. To stay up with Cooper, follow him on Twitter.