- Octav has raised $2.65 million in seed funding to create a systematic way for the DeFi community to label and understand their transactions in one dashboard.
- Octav also plans to integrate with crypto tax platforms to facilitate tax preparation for users by reconciling their transactions.
DeFi labeling and tax reconciliation platform Octav raises $2.65 million in seed funding to help label the DeFi ecosystem and become the “Quickbooks of cryptocurrency.”
“There hasn’t been a systematic way where the DeFi community can decipher all their transactions from block explorers and get their data in one convenient dashboard,” said Mathieu Baril, Co-Founder & CEO of Octav. “So it became clear to us that data labeling is missing in DeFi.”
Octav is run by Mathieu Baril and Luc Blackburn, who formerly worked at Zapper, Accedian Network, and Otodata before founding Octav. Nascent, Polymorphic Capital, Parallel Studio, Spaceship DAO, Investmeows, Possible Ventures, Speedinvest, ACET capital, Paul Desmarais, CEO of Sagard Holdings, and Mark Zeller from AAVE are among Octav’s investors.
According to Mathieu, “We are building the platform that deciphers all DeFi transactions,” Mathieu said. “Today, there’s a lot of companies building DeFi dashboards, but I don’t think anyone is going deep to provide the end user with all the data in an easy way to understand, and we think the right company will need to have a complete defined database of all DeFi transactions, not just a piece of it.”
“A lot of DeFi native tools like Etherscan and Dune Analytics give a lot of raw data, which is great if you have the technical knowledge but not great for most DeFi enthusiasts,” he stated.
“Etherscan does not give you the ability to understand exactly what transaction you did and with what protocol you interacted with because it only provides the contract address and the transaction function directly from the smart contract code,” Mathieu added. “So the entire ecosystem of tools is broken, and DeFi enthusiasts are struggling with a lack of understanding and playbook. That’s really where the current state is, and we’re trying to build something to solve this over time.”
Octav’s DeFi labeling and tax reconciliation platform comprises a DeFi labeling database, portfolio dashboard, and data analytics such as cost basis, profit and loss, and fees paid. It also enables anyone using the platform to contribute to the DeFi machine learning algorithm known as “The Brain” by categorizing unknown transactions that have not yet been added to the database. When user contributions are algorithmically confirmed, the update is automatically distributed to all Octav users who interacted with the same smart contract.
Mathieu noted, “Octav is currently in beta with thousands of users, seven integrated chains, and over 100 million transactions indexed to date.” He further stated, “While the first customers are DeFi power users, Octav’s client base is “anyone who has ever interacted with a DeFi protocol.”
“The capital will be used to integrate more chains to capture the entire DeFi ecosystem. New chains are launched throughout the year, and new protocols launch weekly, so we always have to be ahead to capture the latest protocols the DeFi community is interacting with.” Luc mentioned. “We both worked at startups before and understand the importance of delivering ambitious goals with a lean team.”
In the long run, the co-founders intend to work on connecting with existing crypto tax systems, with Octav’s database acting as a pre-tax facilitator, reconciling all of a user’s transactions before they are ready for tax software.
“For us, it’s twofold. We want to go from a small, tight-knit community of DeFi power users and grow that business,” Mathieu stated. “In parallel, we have an entire stream of accountants waiting to pay to use our platform to reconcile transactions for tax preparation for their clients; we believe that is where our breakthrough will happen.”
About Octav
Octav is a free and editable data analytics platform that aids in analyzing Decentralized Finance (DeFi) investment activity. Octav’s user-curated database simplifies DeFi for traders, tax experts, and liquid asset management organizations by acting as a pre-tax facilitator for cost-basis, profit & loss, and other accounting functions.
