Morgan Chittum

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 <ul>
 <li>Led by Archetype, raise investors include Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Solana Ventures and ParaFi</li>
 <li>Parcl has 15 full-time employees but hopes to expand its staff to 25 by the end of the year</li>
 </ul>
 
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Parcl, a startup that digitizes real estate investments via the Solana blockchain, raised a $4.1 million seed round Tuesday, earmarked for marketing and staffing.



The New York-based company has 15 full-time employees but aims to expand its staff to 25 by year-end, co-founder and CEO Trevor Bacon told Blockworks.



“It&#8217;s a tough hiring environment, but we&#8217;ve managed with our team and vision to have been able to attract some of the best talent,” Bacon said.



Parcl’s mission is to give everyone a chance to invest in real estate, a market which has historically high barriers to entry, but consistent returns.



Parcl’s protocol allows users to invest in a digital square foot of real-live property via its price index, which replicates the price per square foot in various neighborhoods. The platform has transaction fees, but no minimum investment requirement.



“[For example], Tribeca will have a price per square foot of like $2,000, and we&#8217;ll call that a ‘parcl,’” he added. “‘A parcl’ is one square foot of any given neighborhood, and the blockchain is what allows you to create those assets and trade them. It’s basically a way to gain exposure to real estate.”



Led by Archetype, raise investors include Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Solana Ventures, ParaFi, Shima Capital, Slow Ventures, Tribe Capital, Not Boring Capital and FJ Labs.



Parcl will launch a testnet, along with the release and sale of a non-fungible token (NFT) collection in the coming weeks. All of the proceeds, Bacon said, will go toward buying someone a house.



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Blockchain Real Estate Startup Raises Round To Expand Digitized Property Investments

Jacquelyn Melinek

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 <ul>
 <li>KKR joins a list of other LPs invested in ParaFi, including allocators across Silicon Valley, Wall Street, family offices, institutional fund of funds, venture funds, crypto founders and companies</li>
 <li>KKR is a global investment firm with a market capitalization of over $53 billion</li>
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Private equity firm KKR &amp; Co. has invested as a limited partner in ParaFi Capital’s flagship fund, a source familiar with the matter told Blockworks.&nbsp;



KKR is a global investment firm with a market capitalization of over <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/KKR:US" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$53 billion</a>. It manages multiple alternative asset classes, including a private equity <a href="https://www.kkr.com/businesses/private-equity/kkr-portfolio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">portfolio composed</a> of 109 companies that bring in about $244 billion in annual revenues. As of June 30, 2021, the firm has over $429 billion in assets under management, according to its website.&nbsp;



The three-year-old ParaFi Capital manages about $1 billion and focuses on decentralized finance and blockchain technology. Its website states ParaFi Capital invests in digital assets that “address tangible use cases, demonstrate signs of product-market fit, and exhibit compelling cryptoeconomic models.”



KKR joins a list of other LPs invested in ParaFi Capital, including allocators across Silicon Valley, Wall Street, family offices, institutional fund of funds, venture funds, crypto founders and companies. ParaFi Capital’s investors also include venture capital firms Bain Capital Ventures and Galaxy Digital Ventures as strategic partners.



Ben Forman, the founder of ParaFi, has close ties to KKR, having spent time there leading research internally on blockchain before leaving to launch ParaFi in 2018, the source said to Blockworks, adding that the DeFi space is at an inflection point and there is growing adoption of blockchain technology and DeFi among institutional investors.



Both KKR and ParaFi Capital declined to comment when requested by Blockworks.&nbsp;



In 2019, it was <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/kkr-s-kravis-invests-in-his-former-credit-analyst-s-crypto-fund" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> that Henry Kravis, co-founder of KKR, invested in the flagship fund for ParaFi Capital. However, a spokesperson for Kravis declined Bloomberg’s requests to comment at the time.&nbsp;



In general, the crypto space has seen a huge influx of funding from traditional venture capital and private equity firms looking to dive into the digital asset world. In the first quarter of 2021, over $3 billion was allocated into crypto investments up 150% from $1.2 billion in the previous quarter, according to <a href="https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/crypto-startups-post-record-quarter-as-opportunities-abound" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> from Pitchbook.



With that said, KKR joins a list of other investors and venture capital firms, like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)&nbsp; which created a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andreessen-horowitz-launches-2-2b-crypto-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$2.2 billion crypto fund</a> back in June, that have heavily invested in crypto-related companies this year.

Private Equity Firm KKR Invests in DeFi and Blockchain-focused ParaFi Capital

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 <ul>
 <li>The recent funding will help ClayStack “redefine the current staking ecosystem by building a robust platform that is secure and open for all,” the company said</li>
 <li>As there is a widespread DeFi boom, the gap between staking and DeFi is growing bigger and ClayStack hopes to bridge the gap via liquid staking, the company said in a blog post</li>
 </ul>
 
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Crypto staking platform ClayStack announced it has raised $5.2 million in a seed funding round co-led by CoinFund and ParaFi Capital, the company announced in a release Tuesday.&nbsp;



ClayStack is a staking protocol that provides users with the ability to avoid lockup periods by staking their digital assets in the form of liquid staking derivative tokens on supported blockchains. Users can then use those tokens to trade, lend or farm for additional rewards, ClayStack said.&nbsp;



The round also received participation from <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinbase-expands-borrowing-using-bitcoin-as-collateral/">Coinbase</a> Ventures, Spartan Group, HyperSphere, Defiance Capital, Hashed, Solana Foundation, The LAO, Genblock Capital, Ledger Prime, Animoca Brands, Republic Labs and more. ClayStack said in a statement the raise will help it “redefine the current staking ecosystem by building a robust platform that is secure and open for all.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



&#8220;Staking market cap is over one-third of the overall crypto market cap, but participation amongst users is still very low,” Mohak Agarwal, Founder and CEO of ClayStack said in an email to Blockworks. “ClayStack bridges the gap between staking and DeFi, allowing users to reap all the benefits of staking without sacrificing liquidity.&#8221;



The staking industry has made headlines recently as major businesses estimate multi-billion dollar growth over the next few years, while others have announced <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/celsius-to-launch-eth2-staking-pool-gives-users-more-ethereum-for-their-ethereum/">new staking ventures</a>.&nbsp;



Earlier this month, senior analysts at JPMorgan Chase wrote in a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilymason/2021/07/01/jpmorgan-says-ethereum-upgrades-could-jumpstart-40-billion-staking-industry/?sh=3c1228991512">report</a> that the staking industry has a total revenue of $9 billion currently but estimates that staking revenue can grow to $40 billion by 2025 through Ethereum upgrades.&nbsp;



“Liquid staking is becoming increasingly important in a multi-chain world,” said Santiago R. Santos, general partner at ParaFi Capital. As there is a widespread DeFi boom, the gap between staking and DeFi is growing bigger and ClayStack hopes to bridge the gap via liquid staking, the company said in a blog <a href="https://blog.claystack.com/claystack-raises-5-2m-in-seed-round-co-led-by-coinfund-parafi-5e710c323e6a">post</a>.&nbsp;



“The merging of DeFi and staking is a paradigm shift in cryptocurrency and this investment round will enable us to innovate from a position of strength as we head into our alpha launch,” said ClayStack Founder and CEO, Mohak Agarwal. The company’s alpha release, or first phase of the product, is set for Q3, it said.&nbsp;



In the future, ClayStack wants to build a platform that allows users to “make the most of their staked assets irrespective of the ecosystem that they are in,” the post said.&nbsp;



“Claystack is emblematic of the new wave of innovation that doesn’t force users to choose between staking and participation in the DeFi ecosystem,” Vanessa Grellet, head of portfolio growth at CoinFund said in an email to Blockworks. “Users have the flexibility to engage in both which we believe will spur on advancements and growth in both areas.”



Additional investors in the seed round also include Meltem Demirors (Coinshares), Larry Cermak (The Block), Robert Leshner (founder, Compound), Stani Kulechov (founder, Aave), Kain Warwick (founder, Synthetix), Sandeep Naiwal (co-founder, Polygon), Stefan George (co-founder, Gnosis), Illia Polosukhin (founder, Near Protocol), Tegan Kline (The Graph), Tarun Chitra (founder, Gauntlet Network), Raj Gokal (co-founder, Solana), and Partners of True Ventures.