Gauntlet raises $125 million from SBI Holdings in June round

Gauntlet raised $125 million from Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings in a round that closed in June, with SBI as the sole participant. CEO Tarun Chitra declined to disclose the valuation. The financing is the firm's largest since its 2018 founding and is roughly five times larger than its previous biggest raise, a $23.8 million Series B in March 2022 led by Ribbit Capital at a $1 billion valuation. The company first built its reputation by running simulations and making governance recommendations for DeFi protocols including Aave and Compound. It has since expanded into actively managing yield vaults holding assets such as USDC, BTC and WETH, operating as a yield curator on platforms including Morpho. In late 2025, Gauntlet handled a $775 million supply event on Morpho. The new funds will support expansion into stablecoins denominated in Japanese yen and Mexican pesos as well as U.S. dollars and euros, alongside new on-chain financial products and AI-driven global growth. Recent partnerships also highlight its push toward institutional-facing crypto infrastructure. Gauntlet worked with Securitize in April 2025 on a tokenized Apollo credit fund yield product, and in March 2026 it collaborated with Privy to add embedded on-chain yield options.