Gauntlet raises $125M Series C for DeFi risk management

Key Takeaways

• Gauntlet raised $125M Series C led by SBI Group, totaling $169.8M in equity funding
• Vendelux closed $50M Series B for AI-powered B2B event intelligence
• Japanese financial giant SBI Group's lead signals institutional appetite for DeFi infrastructure

Gauntlet, the quantitative risk management firm that has become critical infrastructure for major DeFi protocols, closed a $125M Series C round led by SBI Group. The raise brings the company's total funding to $169.8M and marks one of the largest recent bets on DeFi tooling by a traditional financial institution.

Founded in 2018 by Tarun Chitra, Rei Chiang, and John Morrow, Gauntlet builds agent-based simulations to model economic attacks and optimize parameters for protocols like Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO. The company sits at an unusual intersection: pure quantitative finance applied to permissionless systems.

Why SBI Group is betting big on DeFi infrastructure

SBI Group, the Japanese financial conglomerate leading this round, has history here. The firm holds stakes in Ripple and has built out a crypto exchange, custody, and mining operations. But this investment signals something different: a bet that institutional DeFi adoption requires risk management infrastructure that mirrors traditional finance.

Gauntlet's pitch has always been that DeFi protocols are economic systems first, software second. A bug in the incentive math can drain a protocol faster than a smart contract exploit. The company runs continuous simulations against live protocol states, stress-testing liquidation mechanisms and interest rate curves before they break under real market conditions.

For SBI, the logic is straightforward. If traditional financial institutions are going to allocate capital on-chain, they need the same risk tooling they have in traditional markets. Gauntlet is building that layer.

Vendelux closes $50M for B2B event intelligence

In the same funding roundup, Vendelux announced a $50M Series B led by Tribeca Venture Partners. The round included participation from S3, Pelion Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, FirstMark, and Cervin Ventures, bringing total funding to $71M.

Vendelux operates an AI-powered platform that helps B2B marketers identify, evaluate, and measure in-person events. The company maintains a database of over 250,000 global conferences and trade shows, letting enterprise marketing teams predict ROI before committing budget to a booth or sponsorship.

The problem Vendelux solves is familiar to any B2B marketer: event spend is huge, attribution is murky, and decisions are often made by whoever went to the conference last year. Alex Reynolds and Stefan Deeran founded the company in 2021 to bring data to a traditionally gut-driven process.

The HubSpot Ventures participation is notable. Marketers using CRM platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive already track digital lead sources meticulously. Event leads often enter as a blob of scanned badges with no clear attribution. Vendelux aims to close that gap.

Section raises $3.15M for enterprise AI training

A smaller but interesting raise: Section, the enterprise AI training platform founded by Scott Galloway in 2019, pulled in $3.15M according to an SEC filing. The filing indicates a larger $10M round in progress with six investors in this close.

Section's angle is behavior change, not just training. The platform combines coaching, certification, and strategic planning to help organizations turn AI investments into measurable workflow adoption. It's the unglamorous work of actually getting employees to use the tools companies are buying.

What these raises tell us about where capital is flowing

Three raises, three different markets, one common thread: infrastructure and tooling over applications. Gauntlet doesn't compete with DeFi protocols; it makes them safer. Vendelux doesn't run conferences; it helps marketers spend smarter on them. Section doesn't build AI; it helps companies adopt it.

Investors are betting that the picks-and-shovels layer has more durable margins than the gold rush itself. That's a familiar playbook, but it keeps working.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Gauntlet do?

Gauntlet provides quantitative risk management and yield optimization for DeFi protocols and financial institutions. The company uses agent-based simulations to model economic attacks and optimize protocol parameters.

Who led Gauntlet's Series C round?

SBI Group, the Japanese financial services conglomerate, led the $125M Series C. SBI has significant existing investments in crypto infrastructure including stakes in Ripple.

How much has Vendelux raised in total?

Vendelux has raised $71M in total reported equity funding, including the $50M Series B led by Tribeca Venture Partners.

What is Vendelux's event database size?

Vendelux maintains a database of over 250,000 global conferences and trade shows for B2B marketers to analyze.

Who founded Section and what does it do?

Scott Galloway founded Section in 2019. The platform helps enterprises turn AI investments into measurable workforce behavior change through coaching, certification, and strategic planning.

Source: AlleyWatch