NearPad, the DeFi hub on NEAR’s layer 2 protocol – Aurora, has announced the successful close of its $2m seed round.

The raise was led by NGC with participation from leading backers in the blockchain space including NEAR Foundation, OWC, Ellipti, LD Capital, Flow Ventures, Genblock Capital, Exnetwork, and SuperNova Fund. NearPad has set its sight on jumpstarting ecosystem growth on Aurora through its DAO-centric protocol.

“We’re excited to partner with NearPAD to help early teams fair launch,” says NEAR Foundation.  “NearPAD brings the best of both worlds’ to early projects. Projects and their community members can hold ERC-20 tokens to take advantage of capital flow within the ETH economy. While still getting the dynamic benefits of NEAR: lower fees and fast finality of transactions.”

NearPad is a protocol and a community, a protocol that enables users to connect to value and a community that adds value to projects. NearPad is uniquely based on making the protocol community-owned by vesting control of its treasury and public funds in the hands of its users.

Imagine having a DeFi protocol where you not only get to vote on changes to the protocol but can also propose and vote on funds allocation and utilization. Holders are empowered to vote on projects and teams to incubate, developers can directly pitch their projects to the community. 

NEAR protocol has quietly been growing over the past couple of months, thanks to its lightning-fast finality times and a market that is ripe for low fees and instant transfers.

However, as a blockchain platform, NEAR’s ecosystem is yet to blossom the same way its competitors have in recent months. A problem Aurora is addressing by providing users and developers with access to DeFi’s most used toolings and interfaces. 

As a layer 2 on NEAR, Aurora provides a highly customizable platform supported by a dynamic set of toolings. Which include environments to accommodate developers at any level of experience to make the creation, transfers, and ownership of value accessible and inclusive. It leverages significant technological advantages to produce an ecosystem with greater potential.

As Ethereum becomes increasingly oversaturated and difficult to transact on with high transaction fees and slow transaction times, DeFi users will be looking to explore alternative chains. Aurora is uniquely positioned to benefit from an already established DeFi ecosystem in Ethereum.

With lower fees and faster transactions and finality, users on Ethereum can take advantage of the robust ecosystem while simultaneously benefiting from the scalability advantages of NEAR. 

One of the biggest challenges in the blockchain industry is getting the attention of developers to create dApps on a new ecosystem. Users are also cautious about embracing new ecosystems. They’re not sure what to expect and tend to be conservative when it comes to adopting unfamiliar products.

NearPad is set to eliminate this bottleneck by creating a platform where developers can easily connect to resources while providing users with tools to optimize their experience on the network. 

“Crypto market is getting structured more like a traditional venture market but with a more robust community ethos,” says John Kwak, Co-founder & Partner of Ellipti Ventures “Especially for the burgeoning ecosystem like NEAR, it’s pivotal to thoroughly plan the projects’ journey from initiation with the right people & methods to approach the broader market overall. We are excited to back NearPAD, the all-around DeFi hub embracing diverse needs and making them real”

With the launch of NearPad, Aurora will be able to accelerate its growth of DeFi projects on Aurora even further, expanding the DeFi ecosystem beyond Ethereum and bringing further adoption and usability to the space.

A launchpad, DEX Aggregator, and Yield Aggregator all in one. NearPad is changing the way communities and developers access open finance tools for crowdfunding, asset management, and yield optimization.

The platform will also be the first DAO-led protocol on Aurora by giving its community complete control over how treasury and public funds are utilized for the ecosystem.

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