DEX aggregator ParaSwap raises $2.7 million in seed funding

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator ParaSwap has raised $2.7 million in seed funding.

The round saw participation from 32 investors, including Blockchain Capital, Alameda Research, CoinGecko, Arrington XRP Capital, and Lemniscap. Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave; Itamar Lesuisse and Julien Niset, founders of Argent; and Arthur Cheong, founder of DeFiance Capital, also participated in the round, among others.

With the fresh capital in place, France-based ParaSwap plans to scale its API infrastructure to "millions of users," founder Mounir Benchemled told The Block. To that end, ParaSwap has grown its team of two to 10 in the last three weeks, said Benchemled.

ParaSwap's funding follows a recent $2.8 million seed round by rival 1inch.Exchange.  On the competitive advantage, Benchemled told The Block that "ParaSwap is an API and our UI is one of its users, while 1inch is a UI and they have an API on the side."

"You can think of the UIs (including ours) as an Expedia and our API as the infrastructure that powers it, similar to a Global Distribution System such as Amadeus in the travel industry," said Benchemled.

The funding comes amid the increased user and investor interest in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. At least 138 investors have made at least one investment in the DeFi ecosystem, as The Block Research reported recently.