Risk Harbor, a permissionless risk management marketplace for DeFi, launched on mainnet today with a $3.25M seed round co-led by Framework Ventures and Pantera Capital with additional support from Bain Capital Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures, and Nima Capital.
The launch establishes Risk Harbor as the first-ever fully automated and impartial risk management marketplace for DeFi participants.
Previously in private beta, the platform has nearly $2M in liquidity locked in. Risk Harbor, which also has a presence on Polygon, uniquely utilizes an automated and impartial algorithmic claims process to protect users against smart contract attacks in an entirely secure and objective manner. The efficiency of such a system also allows participants to enjoy instant claims and payout processes while offering the lowest rates with market-informed dynamic pricing.
Co-founded by Raouf Ben-Har and Drew Patel, Risk Harbor operates as a two-sided marketplace in which DeFi depositors are able to purchase protection for their capital in DeFi projects; while others are able to underwrite that protection in return for premiums.
“Existing risk management platforms suffer from prisoner’s dilemma. These protocols are dependent on underwriters that dictate whether a claim should be paid out or not and naturally, underwriters want to maximize policies sold while minimizing claims paid out. In this situation, policyholders are beholden to misaligned underwriters and have no other recourse. With Risk Harbor, transparent and impartial smart contracts decide whether a claim is valid, thereby removing third-party intermediaries while creating an entirely fair and inclusive claims process.”
– Drew Patel, Co-Founder of Risk Harbor
Raise
The raise will support Risk Harbor in expanding protection services cross-chain to accommodate a variety of protocols and wherever demand flows.
Additionally, the funds will enable Risk Harbor to scale internal operations and research and development for future offerings. In anticipation of the mainnet launch, the funds have also been utilized to design a revamped user interface with a heavy focus on an easy, delightful, and informative user experience for both retail and institutional investors.
Aside from participation from major funds, an impressive roster of angel investors also contributed to the raise, including Anthony Pompliano of Pomp Investments, Noah Jessop of Proof Group, Ashleigh Schap of Uniswap, Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau of Alchemy, Do Kwon of Terra Money, Seb Audet of Zapper, Tyler Ward of BarnBridge, and Ashish Rajpurohit formerly of Polygon.