SoftBank leads $70 million round for DeFi infrastructure firm BloXroute

BloXroute, a crypto firm that provides tools for DeFi trading, has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Other investors included Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GSR, Jane Street and Flow Traders. This was an equity funding round and will help BloXroute expand its team and grow its business, the firm's co-founder and CEO Uri Klarman told The Block.

The current headcount of Chicago-based BloXroute is 30 and the firm plans to scale it to up to 100 in the near future, said Klarman. As part of the deal, Robert Kaplan, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisors, has joined the BloXroute board.

Founded in 2018, BloXroute bills itself as "Flash Boys for DeFi," helping traders win trades ahead of slower rivals. BloXroute says its blockchain distribution network allows users to avoid network congestion and receive critical trade information — such as buy and sell orders — quickly.

"DeFi is peer-to-peer. You need to be connected with everyone because critical information — prices, position, arbitrage opportunities — can come from everywhere. This is where BloXroute comes in. We propagate DeFi information almost at the speed of light, allowing our users to make better trades," said Klarman.

BloXroute is a blockchain agnostic platform and supports several networks, including Ethereum, BNB Chain and Polygon.

The Series B round brings BloXroute's total funding to date to $95 million, said Klarman. He declined to comment on the firm's valuation.

BloXroute's previous funding rounds were raised via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) sale. But the firm scrapped its plans for a token launch, said Klarman.

"We had a really cool idea for a security token, back in '17-'18 when security tokens were all the rage. Once it became clear that the legal framework for token-based securities is a decade away, we decided to focus on our core business and just converted all our investors into 'regular' equity holders," said Klarman.

BloXroute's funding comes as blockchain infrastructure startups continue to receive record venture capital cash. So far this year, such startups have collectively attracted billions of dollars of funding, The Block reported recently.