A St. Petersburg fintech-focused firm has stepped into the spotlight with a $3.2 million raise.
Blue, formerly known as IdentDeFi, announced it closed its seed round last week. The round was co-led by New York-based Blockchange Ventures and Shangai-based Fenbushi Capital. DoraHacks, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Gate.io and Wave Financial also participated.
The company offers a "Blue Network" platform that allows retail and institutional users to trade most decentralized finance protocols with verified counterparties.
The latest funding will allow the company to complete security audits, expand its team and bring the Blue Network to market before Q2. The funding followed a $100,000 pre-seed round previously raised by Blue. London-based Outlier Ventures provided the funding after Blue participated in Outlier Ventures' accelerator program.
The funding is one of the first of the year for the Tampa Bay region, following a strong Q4 despite dips across tech ecosystems throughout the nation. Tampa Bay raised $113 million across 25 deals in Q4, bringing 2022’s total to $543.7 million across 82 deals, according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association’s quarterly report.
