Obex incubates, supports, and provides teams with capital to launch innovative, yield-seeking stablecoin projects on the Sky Protocol. Obex has raised $37 million in a round led by Framework Ventures, a major crypto VC firm best known for their early involvement in DeFi, LayerZero, the leading interoperability protocol, and the Sky Ecosystem, a leading DeFi stablecoin platform. As an incubator, its primary objective is to identify exceptional founders and fund stablecoin projects that generate institutional grade, diversified yield opportunities for the Sky protocol. Initially, Obex intends to focus on compute and energy backed stablecoins that can be financed using Sky’s balance sheet.
Based out of San Francisco and administered by Framework Ventures, the Obex incubator will offer a 12-week program in which teams can receive capital to bring new sources of yield on-chain. Each team incubated by Obex will build an independent, decentralized project within Sky that seeks to drive innovation and growth for the wider ecosystem. Incubated projects will aim to deliver compelling risk adjusted returns back to the Sky Ecosystem.
Sky governance has additionally authorized up to $2.5B of USDS to be deployed through Obex into approved, incubated projects that graduate from the Obex incubator. Upon graduating and successfully receiving Sky governance approval, select teams will gain access to up to nine figures in additional capital from Sky, a multi-billion dollar decentralized protocol built around $USDS.
“If you are seeking to do something capital intensive within crypto that needs to be financed through stablecoins or tokenized assets this is the program for you” said Vance Spencer, Co-Founder at Framework Ventures. “With Obex, our goal is to supercharge Sky and its ecosystem to compete with the Apollos and Blackstones of the world, at scale, utilizing real DeFi technology.”
“We believe smart money looks to $USDS as the saving standard because it offers compelling risk adjusted returns and an unmatched track record of security and success at scale,” said Rune Christensen, co-founder of Sky. “By identifying, training and funding the next generation of DeFi stablecoin projects – specifically for institutional players – Obex will play an important role in creating the rails of an upgraded, more efficient and transparent financial system and scaling Sky.”
In addition to funding, teams in the program will also have access to a curated network of mentors and advisors, specialized on-chain education, as well as a suite of services to accelerate their growth. At the end of the 12-week program, teams in the incubator will take part in a demo day, where participants showcase their results and pitch for additional capital from outside investors.
“Stablecoins are becoming the foundation of a new global financial system where value transfer is instant and knows no borders. The end state is global markets, and our vision at LayerZero is to live at the heart of this transition and accelerate the world’s adoption of better money,” said Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs. “Sky and USDS are some of the longest standing decentralized infrastructure in the world and have proven resilient at multi-billion-dollar scale over a long period of time. The opportunity now is to bring that stability and utility into new ecosystems where the next generation of users and builders are emerging. Obex is an important step in that direction, helping expand access to better money and funding the teams building the future of global finance.”