How Varun Satyam took his crypto dreams from Vizag to Switzerland

Davos Protocol, founded by Varun Satyam from Visakhapatnam, is the world’s first stablecoin protocol which enables users to have access to additional capital. Davos has built the decentralized, and permissionless protocol, which takes fluctuating proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, etc., as collateral and gives them additional capital in terms of stablecoin without the need to sell their underlying asset. Users can use this stablecoin to invest in new strategies and pay back the loan at less than 1% interest rate. The protocol is built by a public smart contract, which enables complete transparency and trust of how, and where, the asset is held as collateral. Davos doesn’t just provide access to capital, it also gives you yield for just holding those stablecoins even if you don’t use it for any investing, at higher-than-normal global traditional bank rates.

About the Founder

A computer science graduate, and a first-generation entrepreneur from Visakhapatnam, Varun Satyam is the Co-founder and CEO, of Davos Protocol, which is now headquartered in Switzerland. With a background in blockchain and crypto, Varun has been at the forefront of India’s adoption of these technologies since 2016.

Varun’s journey began as a freelance graphic designer, but he soon ventured into entrepreneurship during his 3rd year of college. His exceptional talent and business acumen led him to be selected as one of the first five student startups under the Sunrise Startups Program initiated by the Andhra Pradesh State Government. He was subsequently incubated into ‘Startup Village’, where he ran one of the most promising student startups in the state. Additionally, Varun played a key role as a founding member of Vizag Startups, a platform that collaborated with the AP Government to promote student entrepreneurship in the region. His contributions were recognized when he received an invitation from Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to the Startup India launch, where he joined 900 esteemed guests worldwide. Notably, Varun also became the youngest panelist in the Student Entrepreneurship Policy Framework, made by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Gujarat Technological University (GTU).

Scaling Heights

During his 4th year, Varun’s talents were acknowledged on a national level, when he was selected for a minor in entrepreneurship by SV CO (Startup Village). Out of 10,000 teams, his team secured a place among the top seven, marking a significant achievement. During this time, he founded Advoge, a tech-based advertising startup, which earned the distinction of being one of the first ten startups from India to exhibit at Web Summit, Lisbon. His accomplishments were further acknowledged when he won the TV show, Startup Junction, on the TV5 news channel. Notably, Varun Satyam became the first student entrepreneur from Visakhapatnam, India to write a mail to Richard Branson, successfully receiving a reply that garnered attention from multiple local news outlets.

After receiving such global exposure at the Web Summit, Varun shifted to blockchain technology. He served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at Darwin Labs for two months before embarking on his own venture, Almora; a new-age crypto investment bank. Through Almora, he facilitated raising investments for crypto projects and developed cutting-edge technologies. However, due to the Stock Market Crash in 2018, Almora had to be wound up, and Varun began to work for prominent crypto companies.

During his career, Varun made significant contributions to Ankr.com as part of the early production team. Working closely with the founding team, he played a crucial role in taking its market capitalisation value from $200 million to $1.4 billion within just 1.5 years. During this remarkable growth, Varun acted as a protocol UX designer and team lead. Following this accomplishment, he continued his journey by joining Bitfinex, the world’s largest stablecoin company, and Tether Protocol, one of the world’s top three crypto exchanges.

Currently, Varun is actively engaged as the CEO and Co-founder of Davos Protocol, the world’s first native yield-bearing decentralized and permission less stablecoin protocol. Davos utilises blockchain’s proof-of-stake mechanism to generate stable yields. Within two months of its soft launch, Davos has already attracted more than $1 million in total value locked (TVL). The platform’s achievements have been acknowledged with the “Best Emerging Blockchain Startup” award at the ET Excellence Awards 2023 by the Economic Times.

Moreover, Davos was selected as one of the 13 promising startups in the Beacon accelerator by Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, and received a pre-seed investment of $500,000 from Polygon Studios and Sandeep Nailwal. In addition to his role at Davos Protocol, Varun actively supports the crypto startup ecosystem through his venture arm, J10M Labs, by providing seed investments. He also advises web3 startups on product development and strategy, leveraging his vast experience and expertise.

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