MoHash, an India-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, announced Thursday that it has raised $6 million seed funding led by Quona and Sequoia Capital India which aims to offer global capital access to private debt in high growth economies and creating liquidity.
The round also saw participation from Jump Crypto, Hashed Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger Prime, and CoinSwitch along with Balaji Srinivasan, Sandeep Nailwal and Jaynti Kanani, MoHash said in a statement.
According to MoHash, penetration of global capital into emerging market private debt is minimal and liquidity is non-existent, and MoHash is providing access to global capital and liquidity to debt issued by non-bank lenders using DeFi as a tool.
It also said that crypto already has close to $150 billion balances in stablecoin earning high risk, unsustainable and crypto correlated yields thus providing the intersection for MoHash to unlock value.
“MoHash is bringing global liquidity to non bank lending in high growth economies. We believe it’s the right rocket fuel that’ll help them double their economies in the coming years”, said Arun Devarajan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MoHash.
MoHash is a DeFi protocol that harnesses crypto assets (namely, stablecoins) for providing access to global capital and liquidity for private debt in fast growing economies.
Founded in 2021, Arun Devarajan and his early team have run fintech businesses lending to Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), managing market risk for Asian debt assets worth $100 billion, and managing funds worth $100 million.
The team also has deep expertise in launching and scaling technology platforms that have reached millions of users, and have handled more than $2 billion in total payment volume (TPV) across the globe. Before MoHash, the team has worked at Goldman Sachs, Samsung, Amazon, Oliver Wyman and India Stack.
“MoHash is bringing real world assets to DeFi users globally and providing sustainable, uncorrelated, and hard to access yields on-chain for the first time. We think that this is exactly the type of product DeFi needs – one that leverages the strengths of blockchains and helps solve a real world problem. We’ve loved working with them over the past few months and Sequoia Capital India is thrilled to co-lead this financing,” said Shailesh Lakhani, Managing Director, Sequoia India.
Sequoia India operates in Southeast Asia and India where it actively partners with founders from a wide range of companies, across categories, including BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, Gojek, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zomato and more.
“MoHash’s DeFi protocol has been built for efficient liquidity provisioning across emerging markets at scale, which is very exciting to us at Quona. The solution has the potential to meaningfully bridge MSME funding gaps across the globe—starting with India—and we are delighted to be part of this company’s journey to do that,” said Ganesh Rengaswamy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Quona.
Quona Capital is a venture firm focused on fintech that can expand access for underserved customers and small businesses in emerging markets including Latin America, Africa and the Middle East (MENA), and South and Southeast Asia.
Its global partners are experienced investors and operators in both emerging and developed markets, and invest in entrepreneurs whose companies have the potential to provide outstanding financial returns and promote breakthrough innovation in financial inclusion for both consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Quona got its start through a strategic relationship with Accion, a global nonprofit with a legacy in microfinance and fintech impact investing.
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