Osero, a stablecoin yield infrastructure startup incubated by Stablewatch, has raised $13.5 million in a funding round led by the Sky Ecosystem (formerly MakerDAO) as it looks to expand adoption of Sky’s stablecoin products.
Plasma, the developer of a Layer 1 blockchain focused on stablecoin payments, co-led the round, while RedStone, The Rollup, Kairos Research, Maple co-founder Joe Flanagan, and USDT0 co-founder Lorenzo Romagnoli also joined the round, among others, Osero and Stablewatch founder Piotr Saczuk told The Block.
The fundraising process began last December and the round closed in March, Saczuk said, noting that the round was structured entirely as a simple agreement for future tokens, or SAFT. Saczuk declined to disclose the valuation.
Osero was incubated over the past year by Stablewatch, a stablecoin yield data and risk advisory platform that acts as a contributor to the Sky Ecosystem, in partnership with Soter Labs, a governance and managed operations provider for the Sky Ecosystem. Stablewatch itself has not raised outside capital and remains bootstrapped, Saczuk said.
What is Osero?
Osero was founded to offer stablecoin savings infrastructure focused on the Sky Ecosystem stablecoins USDS (formerly DAI) and sUSDS, Sky's yield-bearing stablecoin.
"The platforms that win the next five years are the ones that can offer their users a sustainable, transparent return on idle stablecoins without taking on asset management risk themselves. Osero is the infrastructure that makes that possible and Sky's balance sheet is what makes it credible," Saczuk said.
Osero is building three products: Earn, App, and Foundry.
Osero App is designed for retail and institutional users to access the Sky savings rate through a web interface focused on simplicity. Osero Earn allows platforms such as wallets, neobanks, custodians, and exchanges to offer the Sky savings rate to users without directly managing stablecoin strategies or underlying assets themselves.
The third product, Osero Foundry, is focused on helping asset managers, fund issuers, and structured product providers bring products onchain such as through tokenization. Saczuk declined to share a launch timeline of the products.
Notably, of the $13.5 million Osero has raised, $10 million is designated to fund reserve requirements.
"In simple terms, $10 million of Osero's capital will serve as a buffer to protect both users and Sky Protocol from potential losses," Saczuk said, noting that each deployment must go through Sky Protocol’s risk assessment framework, which is inspired by Basel III banking regulations.
When asked why users would choose Osero instead of going directly through Sky, Saczuk said Sky operates similarly to a central bank, with agents or subDAOs such as Osero handling distribution.
"Each agent is optimised for a distinct segment and go-to-market approach, collectively expanding the total addressable surface for Sky Ecosystem products without competing for the same users. Osero is the only Sky agent with a strong focus on expanding the ecosystem into new environments through integrations with wallets, neobanks, exchanges, and beyond," Saczuk said.
As for Osero's business model, Saczuk said it will have two primary revenue streams: earning a revenue share on every (USDS) and (sUSDS) balance distributed through Osero Earn integrations and the app, and capturing the spread between the yield generated on institutional asset allocations and the Sky Base Rate paid on borrowed capital.
Stablewatch, the development company behind Osero, currently has a team of 13 people and plans to hire in credit strategy and business development over the coming months, Saczuk said.
No investor in the funding round has taken a board, advisory, or observer seat, Saczuk added.
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