Crypto Exchange Uniswap Labs Raises $165M in Polychain Capital-Led Round

Decentralized exchange Uniswap Labs has raised $165 million in a Series B round led by crypto-focused investment firm Polychain Capital.

The capital will help further Uniswap’s investments in its web app and developer tools, non-fungible token (NFT) launch and move to support mobile users. Other returning investors included the crypto arm of noted venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant.

The announcement comes a week after a Citigroup research note said that decentralized exchanges have grown faster than centralized exchanges over the past two years, a gap the firm expects to grow in the future as users move away from the cumbersome know your customer (KYC) requirements of centralized exchanges.

“As Uniswap Labs focuses on products, a much broader ecosystem continues to grow and thrive beyond what any one company can do on their own,” wrote Hayden Adams, inventor of the Uniswap Protocol and CEO at Uniswap Labs, in the announcement post.

“As an example, the governance community recently voted to create the Uniswap Foundation, which will contribute to the Protocol’s decentralized development and give at least $60 million in grants to community projects over the next few years,” continued Adams.

Read more: What Is Uniswap? A Complete Beginner’s Guide