Ground, a San Francisco fintech infrastructure startup, raised $3.6M in pre seed funding (co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi) to offer a non custodial API that lets traditional financial platforms seamlessly access diversified onchain yield from protocols like Aave and Morpho across multiple chains.
What is GroundTech.co?
Ground is a San Francisco-based fintech infrastructure startup that provides a non custodial API layer enabling banks, neobanks, fintechs, wealth managers, and asset managers to integrate onchain yield products into their platforms without building custom blockchain infrastructure.
The company emerged from stealth alongside its announcement of a $3.6 million pre seed funding round. This round was co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi, with participation from Nascent, Robot Ventures, Chapter One, and Consonant Ventures. The financing was structured as a SAFE with token warrants; valuation was not disclosed, and no board, observer, or advisory seats were granted to investors. Fundraising began in September 2025 and closed in October 2025, providing roughly eight months of quiet building before the public launch.
Ground addresses a key friction in bridging traditional finance (TradFi) with decentralized finance (DeFi): idle cash and stablecoin balances on fintech platforms that could generate yield but require complex, costly blockchain integrations for compliance, risk management, and operations.
Its modular REST APIs allow seamless plugging into existing user interfaces and ledgers. Key features include:
- Configurable strategies tailored to yield, risk, and liquidity needs, with automatable allocation management.
- Diverse catalog of onchain yield sources (currently supporting protocols like Aave, Morpho, Maple, and Kamino across Ethereum, Solana, and Layer 2 networks).
- Enterprise grade compliance and transparency: Granular data for reporting, audit trails, KYC integration, and risk controls via portal, API, and alerts.
The business model is usage based fees, scaling with capital routed through the platform. This positions Ground as middleware that turns idle balances into revenue or user incentives while enabling new yield powered product offerings. It targets massive untapped markets, noting trillions in idle capital across pre funded accounts, neobanks, and wallets within the ~$147 trillion global asset management industry.
Who founded Ground?
The founding team brings deep, relevant experience in fintech, stablecoins, tokenization, and DeFi infrastructure:
- Reid Cuming (CEO & Co-Founder): Previously Co-Founder and COO (now board member/senior advisor) of Superstate, a tokenized funds platform that raised $82.5 million in Series B. He also served as VP and GM of Compound Treasury at Compound Labs, the first S&P-rated DeFi product. Earlier roles include product leadership at Stripe and others.
- Sam Yoon (CTO & Co-Founder): Technical CEO at Braid (RWA yield on stablecoins) and product/engineering lead at HiFi, where he built stablecoin cross border infrastructure powering hundreds of millions in volume.
As of launch, the team is small (~3 full time employees plus contractors) but plans to hire 2–4 more in engineering, go to market, and operations/legal. The pedigree from Stripe, Superstate, Compound, HiFi, and Braid provides credibility in both TradFi integration and onchain execution.
The round occurs amid growing institutional interest in onchain yield and real world asset (RWA) tokenization. Stablecoin adoption has matured beyond remittances into yield and credit use cases, but regulated platforms still face integration hurdles. Ground’s focus on non custodial, compliant middleware differentiates it from pure DeFi aggregators aimed at crypto native users.
Strong backing from crypto specialist VCs (Bain Capital Crypto, ParaFi, Nascent, Robot Ventures) signals confidence in DeFi infrastructure’s next phase, especially as tokenized assets and onchain credit markets expand. The involvement of investors with broad fintech/crypto portfolios suggests potential for strategic introductions to clients.
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Strengths:
- Proven founders with execution track record in similar high stakes infrastructure (tokenization, stablecoin rails, rated DeFi products).
- Lean, focused product that lowers barriers for regulated entities, fast integration, risk controls, and multi chain support.
- Timing aligns with rising demand for yield on stablecoins/cash balances and broader RWA/DeFi convergence.
- Usage based revenue model offers strong scalability and alignment with client success.
Challenges and Risks:
- Early stage execution risk with a tiny team; rapid hiring and client onboarding will be critical to demonstrate traction.
- Competitive landscape includes other yield aggregators, middleware, and direct DeFi integrations; differentiation hinges on compliance, reliability, and ease of use for non crypto enterprises.
- Regulatory and smart contract risks inherent to onchain yield (e.g., protocol exploits, evolving rules around custody/yield for regulated entities).
- Dependence on underlying DeFi protocols’ liquidity, yields, and security.
This $3.6M pre seed provides runway for product refinement, initial client wins (the company states it is already live and onboarding), and team growth. Success would position Ground as a foundational layer in embedded onchain finance, potentially capturing significant volume as even modest penetration of idle capital yields substantial TVL and fee revenue. The Superstate connection and high caliber investors enhance its ability to navigate institutional adoption. Overall, the round reflects continued investor appetite for practical infrastructure that makes crypto primitives usable at scale in traditional financial products.
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