Filament Raises $1.1 Million in Seed Funding to Enhance Derivatives DEX on Sei Network

Filament, a hybrid decentralized exchange (DEX) for derivatives on the Sei Network, has successfully raised $1.1 million in a seed funding round. According to the Sei blog, the funding round was led by Lingfeng Innovation Fund, with participation from Halo Capital and Spyre Group.

Key Investors and Vision

The seed round also saw contributions from several angel investors associated with prominent Web3 projects such as Polygon, Router Protocol, Stakecito, Chorus One, Archerman Capital, and CoinBureau. Additionally, former key contributors to Binance, Sei, and Tendermint also participated.

Nicole Zhang, Managing Partner at Lingfeng Innovation Fund, emphasized Filament's innovative approach, noting, “Filament stands out among the countless Perp DEX projects we saw, with the most innovative unified liquidity pool and product development from a user-first perspective.”

Abhitej Singh, Co-Founder of Filament, expressed enthusiasm about the funding, stating, “This funding will accelerate our product development, expanding team and strategic partnerships, positioning Filament as a leading competitor in the derivatives trading vertical.”

Technical Advancements

Filament aims to tackle the critical challenge of liquidity within emerging DeFi ecosystems. The platform was developed by a team with extensive experience at Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Persistence, Nethermind, and Open Status. Built on the Sei Network, which is renowned for its speed and sub-0.5-second finality, Filament leverages these capabilities for rapid order execution.

Filament introduces a hybrid model that integrates a compartment-based liquidity pool with an order book, allowing it to operate efficiently even in low-liquidity conditions. This model can process over 40 orders per second per asset, providing users with a centralized exchange (CEX)-like experience.

Justin Barlow, Head of Business Development and Investments at the Sei Foundation, highlighted the platform's potential, stating, “Filament’s matching engine leverages Sei’s industry-leading time to finality to deliver a unique trading experience that feels closer to that of a centralized exchange than what we see in the decentralized landscape today.”

Future Prospects

Filament is currently in beta and plans an uncapped launch in mid-October. At launch, the platform will offer major perpetual futures markets and intends to expand into memecoins and exotic markets, solidifying its position within the DeFi ecosystem.

Co-Founder Pratyaksh Inani elaborated on Filament’s future, “Filament’s hybrid model seamlessly blends liquidity pools with an order book, creating a platform that adapts to any market condition. Our focus is on expanding into a full spectrum of derivatives markets.”

Filament’s ultimate vision is to become a super app for onchain derivatives, including but not limited to perpetual futures, flash binary options, and synthetic stocks. The platform's first client, MemeX, focuses on leverage trading on memecoins, catering to a broader audience of traders.

About Sei Network

Sei Network is a high-performance, low-fee, delegated proof-of-stake blockchain designed for digital asset trading. It is the first Layer-1 blockchain optimized for digital asset trading and the first parallelized Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The network offers an industry-leading 380 milliseconds in transaction finality and can process 12,500 transactions per second.

The Sei Foundation, dedicated to the growth and adoption of the Sei Network, supports the ecosystem through education, funding, and promoting builders within the Sei community.