Kibo Finance, a startup DeFi options trading platform, has announced the closing of a $1.5M seed round. Participating investors in the round include Republic, Huobi, Gate.io, Fenbushi, AU21, Genblock, Kenetic, MGNR, GSR, DFG, Bitcoin.com, David Garcia of Borderless Capital, Sandeep Nailwal (Co-founder of Polygon), and Mirza Uddin (Co-founder of Injective Protocol).

The Kibo Finance protocol allows buying and selling of options on more underlying assets outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum, including, but not limited to, Doge, Binance Coin, Gold, and Stocks. A feature that is first being built on Ethereum and Polygon, Kibo Finance will offer auto-hedging of pools and collateral management so Liquidity Providers (LPs) can maximize rewards.

“DeFi and crypto offerings in options trading platforms are still in their infancy and have significant limitations,” said Andrew Durgee, Head of Crypto and Tokenization at Republic. “Kibo Finance is a borderless experience, which means traders will have greater flexibility on a broader range of options across more blockchains and more possible underlying assets. Kibo is the future for serious traders.”

Structured so LPs get a fair reward for providing liquidity, Kibo traders are ensured of paying a fair price. Strategies include the ability to trade the volatility of an underlying asset without taking a directional position, hedge against a drop in the market, use leverage, and cap losses while speculating.

Originating from an essay written for the “30 under 30” program at QuantMinds International, the world’s largest conference for quantitative finance, Kibo’s founding team is made up of finance, math, and blockchain developers, with backgrounds working at institutions and companies, including Deribit, Artblock, BNP Paribas, and the University of Queensland.

“I am grateful for this amazing group of investors participating in our seed round who believe in the same vision I outlined back in 2019,” said Pierre Cumenal, CEO of Kibo Finance. “As a quantitative analyst by trade, great work and detail has gone into the technical structure of the protocol and has allowed me to assemble a team of top minds that cover all aspects of DeFi options trading.”