Stader Labs raises $12m in funding to build on Terra ecosystem success

Stader Labs has raised $12.5 million in a strategic funding round that raises the valuation of the staking platform up to over $450 million.

Stader, a non-custodial staking platform that provides retail and institutional investors with greater access to staking, currently offers staking solutions on the Terra ecosystem using its native token, Luna.

“This capital will be strategically deployed to accelerate our cross-chain expansion, as well as to nurture our growing ecosystem of third-parties developing staking applications with decentralised Stader infrastructure,” said Stader Labs CEO Amitej Gajjala when commenting on how the capital will be used.

An integral part of the platform longer-term goals, Stader now remains focused on building an economic ecosystem to “grow and develop” custom solutions such as incentivised yield rewards, liquid staking, launchpads and gaming.

The funding round was led by prominent crypto investment fund Three Arrows Capital alongside other notable investors including Blockchain.com, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel and a number of ‘select’ angel investors.

During previous funding rounds, Stader raised $4 million from firms including Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger Prime and Huobi Ventures.

The platform currently has close to $500m in Luna secured by its smart contracts and is on track to attract more total value locked (TVL) with support for multiple blockchains including Solana, Ethereum 2.0, Fantom, Hedera and Polygon set to launch in the coming months.

The Terra ecosystem has seen an impressive rise in TVL thanks to DeFi platforms like Stader and now sits second behind Ethereum with $17.9bn in assets locked according to data from DeFillama.

Do Kwon, CEO of Terra, noted that the funding “will bring Stader closer to its vision to be the most convenient and safe non-custodial staking platform” on the ecosystem.