Thailand’s top 2 banks invest in DeFi startup Forward

• Venture Capital arms of Kasikornbank PCL and Bank of Ayudhya PCL participated in Forward’s funding round.
• Forward is a digital assets platform focused on supporting innovation in the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Thai-based digital asset platform Forward has announced it successfully closed a $5 million seed round as it looks to promote innovation of the decentralised finance (DeFi) sector.

The startup, which also seeks to develop a decentralised derivatives exchange (DDEX), said on Monday that the financing round had only taken six months despite the economic uncertainty and crypto bear market.  

Thai banks back DeFi platform

According to the Forward team, Global venture capital fund RPVAF-1, under Primestreet Capital, led the round – with participation from two of Thailand’s leading banks: Bank of Ayudhya PCL and Kasikornbank PCL.

The two lenders backed the crypto startup via their respective venture capital arms namely Krungsri Finnovate and Beacon Venture Capital. Meanwhile, GBV Capital, Ratanakorn Technology Group and Varys Capital also joined the investment, Forward noted in the press release.

The involvement of the banks makes Forward the first DeFi project in the world to secure funding from two leading Thai banking institutions and major global funds, Chanon Charatsuttikul, co-founder and CEO of Forward observed in a statement.

He believes the capital injection is down to the confidence of investors in Thailand as a potential centre of innovation. 

“The closing of this seed round, for me, is the beginning of a big challenge for the team to maximise our potential and grow the organisation, and help make Thailand stand out as a country of innovation, just like western countries,” he noted.

As part of the innovation, Forward is working on a new protocol design for DDEX trading, which will use advanced technology dubbed Automated Position Hedge (APH) to match short and long positions. The matching of perpetual futures orders will be instant, with the DDEX acting as the counterparty, removing the need for limit order books and market makers.

Lending and borrowing pool tokens will allow for complete hedging of risk in view of the DDEX acting as a counterparty.