Kyo Finance Secures Strategic Funding from Startale Ventures to Power Compliant, Multi-Chain DeFi Infrastructure

Kyo Finance, a next-generation full-stack, vote-escrowed decentralized exchange (veDEX) infrastructure, has announced a strategic investment and ecosystem partnership with Startale Ventures by Startale Group, a leading force shaping the future of the Soneium and Optimism Superchain ecosystems.

The new investment from Startale Ventures accelerates Kyo’s mission to unify fragmented liquidity across Superchain ecosystems, delivering scalable, regulated onchain market access amid rising institutional demand

This recognition reinforces Kyo's position as the leading liquidity hub on Soneium, having reached over $55 million in peak TVL and more than $530 million in cumulative trading volume since its launch on January 14, alongside the debut of the Soneium Mainnet.

Startale Ventures supports high-potential projects building the next era of DeFi infrastructure on Soneium. Among dozens of applicants, Kyo Finance was chosen as the Soneium Spark Incubation Program winner, receiving both financial backing and deep technical alignment with the Soneium long-term growth strategy.

On its part, Startale Ventures offers Kyo more than just strategic investment. This partnership provides access to Startale’s robust ecosystem, including its network of institutional partners, deep technical advisory, and seamless integration opportunities across platforms such as Soneium and Superchain.

“We are excited to support and join forces with such an innovative project as Kyo Finance, which has rightfully become the winner of the Soneium Spark program,” said Startale Group CEO Sota Watanabe. “Together, we will tackle some of the most pressing issues in today’s DeFi sector, starting with uniting fractured liquidity and enabling a truly multi-chain ecosystem.”

This is a result of Startale Ventures identifying Kyo Finance as a cornerstone investment in its broader vision to establish dominant liquidity infrastructure across emerging blockchain ecosystems. As the venture arm of Startale Group, Startale Ventures focuses on early-stage investments in protocols that can become foundational layers for next-generation DeFi.

“With over 50 chains launching within the Superchain, Kyo addresses critical liquidity fragmentation through a fully vertically integrated stack,” noted Kai, CEO of Kyo Finance.

As the U.S. doubles down on crypto deregulation through landmark moves like the Clarity Act and the SEC’s newly announced “Project Crypto”, institutional appetite for compliant, composable DeFi is hitting a critical inflection point.

Kyo Finance sits at the center of this shift.

With deep alignment across the Soneium and Optimism Superchain ecosystems, Kyo offers a full-stack veDEX infrastructure purpose-built to unify fragmented liquidity across chains. Backed by Startale Ventures, with additional support from the Soneium Spark Fund, Kyo delivers execution-quality, governance tooling, and multi-chain liquidity access, at the exact moment institutions are seeking scalable entry points into regulated onchain markets.

Kyo will leverage Startale Venture's strategic investment and partnership to further advance its vision of creating the first fully vertically integrated liquidity infrastructure for the Superchain. As the DeFi landscape is shifting dramatically — with over half of trading volumes now routed through aggregators or embedded swap interfaces — standalone DEXs without robust solver engines are losing value to third-party arbitrageurs, while those lacking competitive frontends risk losing order flow entirely.

Going forward, Kyo Finance will continue to utilize Startale’s Account Abstraction infrastructure and Startale Nodes to enable gasless transactions, demonstrating the practical value and interoperability of Startale’s technology stack across its portfolio companies.

With Startale Ventures leading the strategic around and the Sonieum Spark Fund as supporting investor, Kyo Finance is now positioned to unify fragmented liquidity across Superchain networks, optimize capital flows, and establish a new standard for how DeFi infrastructure should operate in a multi-chain future.

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About Kyo Finance

Kyo Finance is a native veDEX built on the Soneium network—designed to deliver a seamless, user‑first DeFi experience by combining best-in-class AMM functionality, real-time governance, and simplified ve‑tokenomics. Unlike traditional epoch-based DEXes, Kyo offers intuitive one-click batch transactions, real-time vote weighting, and a fully fungible vote token—no complex NFTs or time-based locking systems required. For more information, please visit Kyo Finance

About Startale

Startale Group, headquartered in Singapore, is building the foundation of the next civilisation by bringing billions onchain. Known for co-developing Sony’s Layer-2 blockchain Soneium and Astar Network, Startale Group creates innovative tools such as Startale AA, networks, and applications that serve the distinct needs of entertainment and financial markets, establishing a unique market position through its dual-sector expertise.

For more information visit Startale: Website | X Media Contact: marketing@startale.com