Singapore-based decentralized exchange (DEX) DigiFT has raised $10.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Shanda Group, with participation from investors including HashKey Capital, Xin Enterprise, and North Beta Capital.
The funds will be used to support license applications in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, go-to-market plans, technology development, and innovation capabilities.
DigiFT is the first and only DEX enrolled in the Monetary Authority of Singapore FinTech Regulatory Sandbox and aims to bridge the gap between centralized and decentralized finance by offering regulated decentralized finance solutions on the Ethereum public blockchain through an automatic market making mechanism.
The DEX focuses on asset-backed tokens, providing secondary trading liquidity for security tokens backed by financial assets such as bonds and equities, enabling asset owners to issue blockchain-based security tokens efficiently and cost-effectively, and investors to trade with continuous liquidity and retain control over digital assets in their own wallets. Plans for new hires are in the pipeline to support the growth of the exchange.
DigiFT was founded in 2020 by Henry Zhang, formerly Greater China CEO of East West Bank and deputy China CEO of Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank, and is helmed by a leadership team with extensive experience in financial institutions and fintechs.
The investment from Shanda Group, a global privately-owned investment group founded by Chinese online entertainment pioneer Tianqiao Chen and family in 1999, is particularly noteworthy. Other investors include multi-stage global venture capital firm HashKey Capital, Web3 venture capital firm Hash Global, Singapore investment firm Xin Enterprise Pte. Ltd., and eco-building firm North Beta Capital.
Henry Zhang said that the Pre-Series A funding round was a testament to the huge potential of the industry if the gap between traditional finance and Web3 can be bridged.
DigiFT aims to work with regulatory bodies to steer the industry in the right direction.
Tianqiao Chen said DigiFT’s appeal was in the leadership team’s ability to understand the gaps within the DeFi industry and their effective combination of extensive backgrounds in traditional financial institutions with deep knowledge of Web3 financial services.
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