Pivots, struggle, and aha moment: How OnJuno found the right crypto product for the US market

moneycontrol.com:

In 2017, Decentralised Finance, or DeFi, was not yet a buzzword in India, and cryptocurrencies were being viewed suspiciously as the country's regulators were mulling if they should be banned or okayed, even as Bitcoin rallied.

Around the time, three Indian entrepreneurs -- Varun Deshpande, Ratnesh Ray, and Siddharth Verma – founded Nuo Network, a decentralised crypto-lending platform, aimed at emerging economies. This was the second startup founded by the trio after their previous platform, BeeWise, built for commerce apps, was acquired by Aditya Birla Money.

Cut to 2021, cryptocurrencies are still struggling to find complete acceptance in India. The industry is dealing with a 30 percent tax rate, with no clear regulations in sight. Some entrepreneurs are moving to Dubai, others are contemplating whether India can, in fact, be a favourable market for their businesses amidst the current policy scenario.

During these years of uncertainty, Deshpande, Ray, and Verma decided to close down Nuo Network and start up again to cater to the US market, a safer haven for cryptocurrencies. They came back in a new avatar – OnJuno.

After a $3-million seed round in 2019, OnJuno started garnering eyeballs from users and investors, and has closed its Series A round. The startup counts Sequoia, Polychain and Dragonfly Capital among its investors.

Its list of angel investors has marquee names, like Etheruem co-founder Joseph Lubin, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Pine Labs’ Amrish Rau, and Jupiter Money founder Jitendra Gupta, to name a few.

Rau, in fact, said OnJuno is his most memorable angel investment, and the founders, among his favourites, in a recent interview with Moneycontrol.

But getting here wasn't easy. We take a look at the