# Varun Deshpande

> Varun Deshpande is the co-founder and CEO of Juno, a San Francisco-based crypto-native digital banking platform that bridges traditional finance and decentralized finance for the US market. A serial entrepreneur from BITS Pilani, he previously co-founded BeeWise (acquired by Aditya Birla Money), Nuo Network (a DeFi lending protocol), and TopTalent.in. With Juno, he has raised $24M across seed and Series A rounds from top-tier investors including Sequoia Surge, Polychain, ParaFi Capital, and Jump Crypto, building a platform that lets users earn, spend, and manage crypto alongside traditional banking.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Juno
- **Organizations:** Juno, Nuo Network, BeeWise, TopTalent.in, Toppr.com
- **Nationality:** Indian
- **Education:** Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani
- **Known for:** Raised $24M total funding across seed ($3M) and Series A ($18M) rounds, BeeWise acquired by Aditya Birla Money after processing over 100 million transactions, Secured backing from marquee investors: Sequoia Surge, Polychain, ParaFi Capital, Jump Crypto, Hashed, Dragonfly Capital, Greycroft

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Interned at GlobalLogic Inc.
- **2012** — Co-founded TopTalent.in, an online job portal that processed 150,000+ jobseekers
- **2014** — Joined Toppr.com as AVP of Marketing where he met future co-founder Ratnesh Ray
- **2015** — Co-founded BeeWise, a personal finance management app with 1.5 lakh users
- **2016** — BeeWise acquired by Aditya Birla Money after processing 100M+ transactions
- **2018** — Co-founded Nuo Network, a decentralized debt marketplace for global lenders and borrowers
- **2019** — Co-founded Juno (originally OnJuno) in September; raised $3M seed from Polychain, Sequoia Surge, Dragonfly Capital
- **2020** — Launched OnJuno app in November as 'The Most Powerful Checking Account'
- **2021** — Integrated crypto features - split paycheck into USD, Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC
- **2022** — Rebranded from OnJuno to Juno after securing trademark; raised $18M Series A led by ParaFi Capital
- **2023** — Expanded to 20+ blockchain networks with zero-hold crypto withdrawals; launched Juno Pay

## Achievements

- Raised $24M total funding across seed ($3M) and Series A ($18M) rounds
- BeeWise acquired by Aditya Birla Money after processing over 100 million transactions
- Secured backing from marquee investors: Sequoia Surge, Polychain, ParaFi Capital, Jump Crypto, Hashed, Dragonfly Capital, Greycroft
- Attracted angel investment from Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin and ex-Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan
- Built Juno to 30,000 checking accounts targeting 1 million users
- Launched loyalty token program to incentivize crypto-native banking behavior
- Partnered with Polygon, ZenGo, and Zero Hash to enable multi-chain on/off-ramp infrastructure
- Led the DeFi Mullet strategy - FDIC-insured banking shell with DeFi rails underneath
- Founded 6 companies across recruitment, edtech, fintech, DeFi, and crypto banking

## Latest updates

- **2023-01** — Juno expanded crypto support to 20+ blockchain networks with zero holding periods on withdrawals
- **2022-10** — Raised $18M Series A led by ParaFi Capital with participation from Hashed, Jump Crypto, Uncorrelated Fund, Greycroft, 6th Man Ventures
- **2022-06** — Rebranded company from OnJuno to Juno after securing the trademark
- **2022-01** — Launched Juno Pay for funding third-party crypto wallets directly from Juno account
- **2023-06** — Introduced Zero Hash as crypto infrastructure partner for modular crypto stack

## Links

- Website: https://juno.finance
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varundeshpande14/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/varun_dp
- GitHub: https://github.com/varunvd

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/varun-deshpande
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-22