Digital asset data platform PYOR raises $4 million in funding led by Castle Island Ventures

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PYOR (Power Your Own Research), a data and insights platform for the global digital assets industry, has raised $4 million in a seed round led by Castle Island Ventures.

The funding round also saw participation from Hash3, Antler, Future Perfect Venture, Force Ventures, CoinSwitch Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and prominent angel investor Balaji Srinivasan.

The company, founded by former CoinSwitch employees CBO Sharan Nair, CFO Sarmad Nazki, SVP Krishna Hegde, and blockchain developer Yadunandan Batchu, plans to use the fresh capital to expand its team, core infrastructure, and product platform. They aim to enhance their interpretation layer for digital assets.

Co-founders Nair, Nazki, Hegde, and Batchu quit CoinSwitch in July 2022.

“Unlike other asset classes, digital assets are primarily driven by retail investors, and institutional-grade infrastructure for decision-making has been limited. Despite digital assets having a market capitalization exceeding $1 trillion, there is a significant need for effective data infrastructure to facilitate institutional participation,” Hegde said.

“India has a strong talent base across blockchain, analytics and technology domains that is helping us deliver high-quality products to global customers,” he added.

Sean Judge, General Partner at Castle Island Ventures, added: “The PYOR team is building critical auditable infrastructure for the crypto industry. We are thrilled to partner with Krishna, Sarmad, Sharan, and Yadunandan. Their experience ushering in crypto investors at CoinSwitch highlighted the need for standardized, institutional-grade data and analytics to bring in the next wave of crypto investors.”