Shipyard Software
Acquired10 known investors
Shipyard Software builds decentralized exchange (DEX) products, drawing on academic research in automated market making. The company operates in the crypto and decentralized finance space.
Also known as Shipyard Software Inc. Β· Shipyard Software, Inc.
Founders & leadership
Investors Β· 10
Also in the syndicate Β· 7
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Shipyard Software, Inc. is a crypto company that designs decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and related tools intended for specific types of trades, traders and instruments rather than a single general-purpose venue. Its stated mission is to build a "fleet" of specialized exchanges that create free and fair markets, with decentralization providing transparency and security and specialization providing user-centric design. Its first product, Clipper, is an automated market maker aimed at retail-sized trades, offering the best available prices on small trades (initially described as under $10,000, later under $50,000) while deliberately giving worse prices on large trades in order to repel whales and arbitrageurs; the pool size was capped at $20 million to balance trading fees against slippage.
Beyond Clipper, the company's product set includes a DEX for decentralized perpetual contracts supporting leveraged long positions and repo trades, a coded, blockchain-ready OFAC sanctions list to help DeFi protocols and exchanges meet regulatory requirements and attract institutional users, and a B2B white-label gamification product for brands seeking community growth and engagement. The DEXs Shipyard develops are governed by AdmiralDAO, incorporated as Admiralty LLC, a non-profit member-managed LLC in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, with a multisig wallet whose signers include Shipyard's founding members and a stated intention to decentralize governance further over time. Shipyard also advised the RMI government on the creation of MIDAO, an entity intended to simplify compliant DAO incorporation in the country. The company published a DEX Brief newsletter and produced podcasts ("Making Sense of Crypto" and the "WTF, Crypto Podcast") hosted by CEO Mark Lurie. In January 2025, Shipyard Software announced it had been acquired by Sushi Labs.
Founding story
Shipyard Software was introduced publicly in September 2021 as a new organization founded by crypto veterans. Co-founder Abe Othman was an original advisor to the Augur project and an academic researcher in automated market maker design; co-founder and CEO Mark Lurie previously founded Codex, a blockchain-based title registry for art and collectibles that ran an ICO in 2018 and created 500,000 NFT titles, and before that an online marketplace for art and collectibles that was acquired in 2016. Lurie was previously an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners.
Business model
Shipyard Software develops and operates decentralized exchange protocols and DeFi tooling, with its DEXs governed by AdmiralDAO on behalf of the community. Products span consumer-facing DEXs (Clipper, decentralized perpetual contracts), a compliance tool (a blockchain-ready OFAC sanctions list for DeFi protocols and exchanges), and a B2B white-label gamification product for brands.
Clipper's design is described in terms of balancing trading fees against slippage within a capped liquidity pool; a B2B white-label gamification product is offered to brands. The sources do not specify pricing or fee-sharing arrangements.
Traction
Clipper launched on 30 June 2021 and executed nearly 24,000 trades in its first 30 days, regularly ranking among the top five DEXs by active user count. It completed full integrations with the DEX aggregators 1inch and 0x. Clipper later expanded to the Base network (reported in the March 2024 DEX Brief). A community campaign, Clipper Adventure 3, is credited with 30,000 signups. AdmiralDAO was incorporated in the Marshall Islands as the first DAO registered there.
Latest developments
On 28 January 2025, Shipyard Software published a post stating it had been acquired by Sushi Labs and that the team was continuing as part of Sushi Labs. Earlier, in March 2024, the company reported Clipper's expansion to the Base network.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Shipyard positions itself against one-size-fits-all DEXs such as Uniswap, arguing that a mature DeFi ecosystem will consist of many highly specialized, user-specific exchanges rather than a few large platforms optimized for high-dollar volume. In Clipper's first 30 days it regularly ranked among the top five DEXs by active user count.
Rather than maximizing trading volume, Shipyard designs exchanges optimized for narrow user segments β for example capping Clipper's liquidity pool so small retail trades get the best prices while large trades are intentionally disadvantaged, repelling whales and arbitrageurs. The company also emphasizes founder research credentials in AMM design and legal formalization of governance through an incorporated DAO.
Technology
Shipyard's work applies academic research on automated market maker (AMM) design. Clipper uses a novel AMM with a deliberately capped liquidity pool ($20 million) that optimizes prices for small trades while producing poor pricing for large trades. Co-founder Abe Othman is described as a widely published researcher in AMM design whose 2012 PhD thesis was cited in the Uniswap v3 whitepaper, and who created the first liquidity-sensitive homogeneous market maker. Engineering areas cited by the team include dApp architecture, web3 integration infrastructure and account abstraction. Other products include decentralized perpetual contracts and a coded, blockchain-ready OFAC sanctions list.
Go-to-market
Distribution has relied on integration with DEX aggregators (Clipper completed full integration with 1inch and 0x shortly after launch), community programs and campaigns (for example Clipper Adventure 3, which the company says drew 30,000 signups), a DeFi industry newsletter (DEX Brief), and podcasts hosted by the CEO.
Retail or "self-made" crypto traders executing smaller trades (initially trades under $10,000, later described as under $50,000); traders seeking leveraged long positions and repo trades; DeFi protocols and crypto exchanges needing sanctions-list compliance to attract institutional investors; and brands seeking gamification of their platforms.
Geography
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, with AdmiralDAO incorporated in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Team members are distributed, including staff with experience across Latin America and a designer based in Nova Scotia, Canada.
History
The company launched its first DEX, Clipper, on 30 June 2021, and announced a $21 million funding round led by Polychain Capital in July 2021. It published its introductory post in September 2021. In 2022 it incorporated AdmiralDAO as Admiralty LLC in the Republic of the Marshall Islands β described as the first DAO incorporated there β following a January 2022 RMI amendment to its nonprofit statute allowing DAOs to register as nonprofit LLCs, and it supported the creation of MIDAO to assist other DAO incorporations. The company expanded its product line to include decentralized perpetual contracts, an OFAC sanctions-list tool and a white-label gamification product, and continued publishing its DEX Brief newsletter through 2024, including news of Clipper's expansion to Base. On 28 January 2025 Shipyard Software announced it had been acquired by Sushi Labs.
Risks & controversies
AdmiralDAO governance initially rested with a multisig wallet whose signers included Shipyard's founding members, with broader decentralization stated as a future intention. The company also markets a compliance tool premised on regulatory pressure on DeFi protocols and exchanges.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Timeline Β· 6
launches, deals, and filingsShipyard Software published a post announcing its acquisition by Sushi Labs, describing the team continuing its work as part of Sushi Labs.
Shipyard's DEX Brief No. 28 reported that Clipper expanded to the Base network.
Shipyard incorporated AdmiralDAO as Admiralty LLC, a non-profit member-managed LLC in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, described as the first DAO incorporated there; governance includes a multisig with signers from Shipyard's founding members.
Shipyard Software raised $21 million led by Polychain Capital, with participation from 0x Labs, 1inch, DeFi Alliance, Quantstamp, MetaCartel DAO, Robot Ventures, FJLabs, Naval Ravikant, Nascent, Three Arrows Capital, Electric Capital, LD Capital and IOSG; proceeds intended to accelerate growth and expand operations.
$21M source β
Clipper completed full integration with the DEX aggregators 1inch and 0x.
Clipper, Shipyard's first DEX, launched with an automated market maker offering guaranteed best prices for retail-sized trades.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Shipyard Softwareshipyardsoftware.org Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Shipyard Software do?
- Shipyard Software builds specialized decentralized exchanges and DeFi tools for specific trade types and traders.
- Who founded Shipyard Software?
- Shipyard Software was founded by Mark Lurie.
- Who are Shipyard Software's investors?
- Shipyard Software's investors include BR Capital, Re7 Capital, Alliance DAO (ex DeFi Alliance).