August, a crypto-focused prime brokerage firm, has raised $10 million in a Series A led by Dragonfly Ventures

August, a crypto-focused prime brokerage firm, is seeking to make it easier for investors to access all sorts of DeFi, short for decentralized finance

Crypto-focused prime brokerage firm August has raised $10 million in a Series A funding to make it easier for investors to access decentralized finance (DeFi).

The investment round was led by Dragonfly Ventures, with participation from SCB Limited, 6th Man Ventures, and Foresight Ventures. August's valuation in the funding round was not disclosed.

August works with large financial institutions, such as hedge funds and family offices, providing them with yields and returns on their crypto investments through lending, borrowing, and trading.

Aya Kantorovich, co-CEO of August, highlighted the company's unique role in simplifying institutional investors' experience with DeFi.

"We're really trying to be the first place that they go to and the last place they need to go," Kantorovich told Fortune.

While August integrates 70 DeFi protocols and 13 blockchains, institutions typically prefer to engage with one entity. To cater to this need, August acts as a middleman, aggregating various DeFi networks like Aave, Morpho, and Uniswap for lending, derivatives, and token trading.

"They don't want to deal with the complexity of chains and protocols. They just want to have one place where they can go and get everything they need," Kantorovich explained.

In doing so, August also handles the administrative burden, allowing clients to pay for their loans, derivative positions, and trades all at once, instead of putting money down for each individual position.

August generates most of its revenue through trading spreads—the difference between the price a token is bought at and the price it is sold at—and charges its clients trading fees on each transaction. Kantorovich declined to disclose the company’s annual revenue.

August is not the only crypto-focused prime brokerage. Coinbase has a division that caters specifically to large institutional clients, known as Coinbase Prime. FalconX is another well-known brokerage in the space.

With the fresh capital, August plans to build out its marketing strategy, hire more employees, and continue developing new technology. The company previously raised $6 million in a seed round in 2023.