Kuru Labs, a decentralized finance (DeFi) startup built on the Monad blockchain, has successfully closed an $11.6 million Series A funding round. This round was led by Paradigm, a crypto-focused investment firm. The funds raised will be used to develop a central-limit orderbook (CLOB) combined with automated market-making capabilities for Monad, a super-fast version of Ethereum. Paradigm had previously led a $225 million raise for Monad in the last year.

CLOBs are trading systems that match traders’ buy and sell orders based on time and price priority. Orders are sent at a pre-defined price and are only executed if the price limit is matched. This system aims to enhance the efficiency and transparency of trading on the Monad blockchain.

In addition to Paradigm, a number of angel investors participated in the funding round for Kuru Labs. These investors include Viktor Bunin (Credibly Neutral), Zagabond, Tristan Yver, Alex Watts, Jordan Hagan, 3nes, Will Price, Shreyas Hariharan, Auri, and Joe Takayama, among others. Their involvement underscores the growing interest and confidence in the potential of DeFi and the Monad blockchain.

Kuru Labs has outlined its vision to create a premier liquidity hub for Monad. The company aims to bring a performant central-limit orderbook to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for the first time, along with an integrated discovery and trading terminal, user liquidity provision, and a token launchpad. This initiative is powered by Monad’s globally decentralized network, which will unify liquidity across the ecosystem. The hybrid integrated CLOB-AMM model is designed to preserve composability and democratize access to liquidity provisioning, making it more accessible and efficient for users.