Digital asset investment management platform Haruko has secured USD 6 million in a Series A funding round to facilitate its expansion into Southeast Asia. The funding was co-led by White Star Capital's Digital Asset Fund and MMC Ventures, bringing Haruko's total venture capital raised to USD 16 million.

Founded in 2021, Haruko has rapidly expanded across North America and Europe, serving over 50 investment management institutions from its offices in London and Singapore. The platform has gained traction among various market participants including hedge funds, family offices, market makers, treasury teams, and prime brokerages. The company focuses on providing extensive functionality, covering centralised finance (CeFi), decentralised finance (DeFi), and over-the-counter (OTC) venues, along with support for multiple products.

Representatives from Haruko cited by Yahoo emphasised the company's commitment to delivering institutional-grade solutions without deviating from its core mission of simplifying complexity for clients and enhancing revenue generation capabilities. Haruko plans to continue its global expansion by investing in talent and further developing its end-to-end solutions for digital assets. White Star Capital and MMC Ventures expressed their confidence in Haruko's role in advancing institutional adoption of digital assets, citing its deep domain knowledge and innovative approach to infrastructure development within the digital asset landscape.

Previous developments from Haruko In June 2024, Haruko integrated Stacks into its framework, aiming to enhance access to Bitcoin assets and decentralised finance (DeFi) products. Stacks, a prominent layer 2 solution for Bitcoin, focuses on leveraging Bitcoin's decentralised protocol to unlock significant capital potential. Over the past year, Stacks has witnessed substantial growth, hosting various decentralized applications (dapps) and protocols on its scalable L2 platform, thereby transitioning Bitcoin DeFi from concept to operational reality.

According to financemagnates.com, while institutional investors are familiar with Bitcoin, primarily through ETFs offering exposure to the digital asset, their involvement has traditionally been limited to holding BTC on balance sheets. The integration of decentralised finance capabilities on Bitcoin's infrastructure presents opportunities for diversified use cases, including lending and stablecoin issuance, potentially offering real yield. .