Improbable invests $2M in Otomato to build a DeFi intelligence layer
What's the deal? Venture builder Improbable has invested $2 million in Otomato, a startup building what it calls a "portfolio-aware intelligence layer" for decentralised finance. Otomato monitors users' on-chain positions around the clock and alerts them when something materially changes their risk, cost, or opportunity — cutting through the noise of generic alert tools.
The investment is one of the first external bets under Improbable's sharpened focus on companies building at the intersection of AI and web3. Otomato was co-founded by Dylan Breugne and Clément Hecquet.
The funding will go toward product development, expanded multi-chain coverage, and go-to-market. Improbable is also providing operational support spanning technical infrastructure, AI development, finance, legal, and compliance. Otomato retains full IP ownership and roadmap autonomy.
Why now? Active DeFi users manage positions across multiple protocols and chains, constantly switching between dashboards and missing critical events like liquidations, rate spikes, and depegs. Otomato has already attracted more than 2,000 users — with 1,500+ actively receiving alerts — and integrates with 10+ protocols including AAVE, Pendle, Uniswap, Morpho, Euler, and Hyperliquid.
All of that growth has been organic. In December 2025, a HyperEVM Wrapped campaign drew 3,690 unique users in five days, converted 81.6% into Telegram bot users, and was shared 971 times on X — with zero paid promotion. Otomato's consumer app launched on the App Store and Google Play in April 2026.
"DeFi is becoming the back-end of a larger AI-powered economy, and the first team to build the intelligence layer that understands what users actually hold and tells them what matters has the potential to win an entire category," said Herman Narula, co-founder and chief executive officer of Improbable.
What could go wrong? DeFi's user base remains relatively small compared to traditional finance, and regulatory uncertainty across jurisdictions could complicate expansion. The space is also littered with startups that gained early traction but struggled to scale beyond crypto-native audiences. Whether Otomato can move from 2,000 users to millions — as the team aspires — depends on both market growth and the startup's ability to stay ahead of competitors building similar monitoring tools.
The signal: Improbable's bet on Otomato underscores a growing conviction that the real value in web3 will accrue not to blockchains themselves but to the intelligence layers that make them usable. Dealroom classifies Improbable — which pivoted from gaming-focused simulation technology to AI-meets-web3 venture building — as an "early growth" company, suggesting this external investment strategy is itself a relatively new chapter. With DeFi tooling still fragmented and AI-native interfaces barely emerging, the race to own the portfolio-awareness category is wide open.
Read more: smb.state-journal.com
