Top Three Most Innovative DeFi Startups | CB Insights Blockchain 50

NEW YORK, March 1, 2022 -- Index Coop recognised as top three most innovative DeFi Startup alongside Uniswap and Aave in the CB Insights second annual Blockchain 50, which showcases the 50 most promising blockchain and crypto companies in the world.

The 2022 Blockchain 50 cohort has raised $17.1B in aggregate funding across over 200 deals since 2016 and includes startups at different investment stages of development, from early-stage companies to well-funded unicorns.

"2021 was the year blockchain entered our mainstream vocabulary,” said Brian Lee, SVP of CB Insights’ Intelligence Unit. "It powers some of our most innovative and cutting-edge technologies. Last year, we saw incredible success from the Blockchain 50 winners. This year, included among the winners we have 31 unicorns, 41 mega-rounds, and representation from 15 countries. We're excited to follow their journeys and see their success in 2022."

“We’re delighted to be recognized by CB Insights,” said Mike Taormina, Head of Institutional Business at Index Cooperative. “This is a testament to the innovative decentralized products that blockchain technology enables.”

Through an evidence-based approach, the CB Insights research team selected the Blockchain 50 from a pool of over 3,000 companies, including applicants and nominees. They were chosen based on several factors, including data submitted by the companies, company business models and momentum in the market, and Mosaic scores, CB Insights’ proprietary algorithm that measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies.

The Index Cooperative powers decentralized products that help users access cost-effective, passive exposure to key crypto themes like decentralized finance, the Metaverse, and data/blockchain infrastructure. The Cooperative’s flagship product, the DeFi Pulse Index ($DPI), is a basket of DeFi governance tokens for protocols such as Uniswap, Aave, Compound, SushiSwap, and Yearn. Users can self-custody the product and mint/redeem tokens in exchange for the underlying components.

Since its founding in late 2020, the Index Cooperative has made considerable progress:

• Product Suite: Index Cooperative partnered with third-parties such as Scalara (formerly DeFi Pulse), MetaPortal, Bankless, and Titans of Data, which designed the methodology for the DeFi Pulse Index ($DPI), the Metaverse index ($MVI), the Bankless DeFi Innovation Index ($GMI), and the Data Economy Index ($DATA), respectively.

• Technology: The product suite is deployed on both Ethereum Mainnet and the Polygon ecosystem and is powered by Set Protocol’s infrastructure.

• Category leadership: The Total Value Locked held in Index Cooperative products represents over 85% of the aggregate on-chain index market. In addition, the number of unique wallets holding Index Cooperative products has grown 176% over the last twelve months.

• Strategic investors: Index Coop’s $10mm Treasury diversification during Summer 2021 included strategic investors Sequoia, 1kx, Galaxy Digital, Wintermute, 1confirmation, Defiance Capital, LD Capital, White Star Capital, Assembly Capital, and Laconia Capital.

• Custodial Asset Support: Select Index Cooperative products are supported by global custodians Coinbase Custody, BitGo, Fireblocks, and Komainu, offering high-net-worth individuals and institutions a higher degree of security for digital storage.

• Market Maker Relationships: In September, Index Cooperative partnered with Wintermute, one of the largest market-making firms globally, to provide institutional-grade liquidity for the Index Cooperative product suite.  

• Exchange Listings: Index Cooperative’s products are available across many decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and Sushiswap, as well as aggregators such as Matcha and 1inch. The DeFi Pulse Index ($DPI) is also listed on the centralized exchange KuCoin.

• Team: The Index Cooperative team grew its decentralized community of contributors from across the globe.  

2022 Blockchain 50 Investment Highlights:

• Unicorns: 31 of the 50 companies (62%) are valued at or above $1B as of their latest funding round.

• Funding trends: These 50 companies raised $13.2B in equity funding in 2021 across 83 deals (excluding token sales).

• Mega-rounds: In 2021, there were 41 mega-round ($100M+) equity investments to this year’s Blockchain 50, nearly half of the total deal count.

• Global representation: This year’s winners are based in 15 countries, with 44% of the companies based outside of the US. After the US (28 companies), the UK is home to the second most Blockchain 50 companies (5), followed by Canada, France, Singapore, and Switzerland (all at 2).

• Top investor: Coinbase Ventures is the most active investor in this year’s Blockchain 50, having invested in 16 of the 50 companies. Andreessen Horowitz is second with 14 companies, followed by Paradigm at 13.

About CB Insights

CB Insights builds software that enables the world's best companies to discover, understand, and make technology decisions with confidence. By marrying data, expert insights, and work management tools, clients manage their end-to-end technology decision-making process on CB Insights. To learn more, please visit www.cbinsights.com.

CB Insights Press Contact: media@cbinsights.com

About Index Cooperative

The Index Cooperative is a decentralized community powering crypto index products that can be purchased on a blockchain. Index Cooperative products provide one-token exposure to popular crypto themes such as decentralized finance, the Metaverse, and the Web3 data economy. As of March 1st, 2022, Index Cooperative products have an aggregate Total Value Locked (TVL) of approximately $200mm.

Index Cooperative Press Contact: marketing@indexcoop.com