DeFi mutual fund Sheesha Finance raises $9.4M

Sheesha Finance, a DeFi mutual fund based in the United Arab Emirates, has raised $9.44 million over a two-week token sale — underscoring heightened investor demand for decentralized finance applications. 

The token sale, known as a Liquidity Generation Event, or LGE, excluded private sales and early contribution bonuses, which allowed micro-investments of as little as 0.0001 Ethereum (ETH). In total, LGE contributors doled out 3,171.31 ETH, valued at $6.35 million, and 7,769.43 Binance Coin (BNB) worth $3.08 million.

Investors who contributed to the LGE can claim their Liquidity Provision, or LP, tokens for staking in exchange for the native SHEESHA token. Holders of SHEESHA token are eligible to receive rewards with every block mined.

Saeed Hareb Al Darmaki, founder of Sheesha Finance, credited the “strong support” from the DeFi community for his company’s initial success:

“With the strong support of the DeFi community, strategic advisors and partners [on board], we can provide exposure to reputable projects in the DeFi space while offering the best APY options for our ecosystem participants.”

Sheesha’s advisory board includes David Namdar, founding partner of Galaxy Digital, Stakehound CEO Albert Castellana, and Michael Terpin of Transform Group, among others.

Sheesha is attempting to make DeFi more accessible to mainstream investors by creating “easily convertible assets” that can be used to gain exposure to new and existing projects in the space. Decentralized finance remains one of the hottest verticals in the blockchain industry. DeFi protocols have locked in nearly $108 billion worth of assets, according to the latest industry figures.