Conduit, a developer of DeFi products for FinTechs, neobanks and exchanges, has collected $17m in fresh funding.
The round was led by Portage Ventures, which focuses on backing FinTech companies. Other participants to the round include Diagram Ventures, FinVC, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gradient Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, Inovia Capital, Gaingels, Discovery Ventures and Jump Crypto.
Several angel investors also committed capital, including executive vice president, Paypal chief product officer Mark Britto, former PayPal CCO Gary Marino, former Coinbase CCO Asiff Hirji, 11:FS co-founder Simon Taylor, Google Pay head of BD and strategy Nik Milanoviand former a16z partner Rex Salisbury.
The company initially launched its services in Canada, but this capital will help build products and go-to-market teams in Latin America and the US.
Conduit aims to fix the problem of unequal access to financial services. The average person cannot earn on their savings, particularly with interest rates being below the rate of inflation, it said. This is where DeFi can help.
The platform connects FinTechs, neobanks, exchanges and traditional financial institutions to crypto-based earning products so customers can take advantage of them.
Conduit offers two products, which can be integrated via APIs, Growth Earnings Accounts and Corporate Treasury. The former solution lets companies offer customers a simple way to invest in Conduit high-yield, decentralized finance accounts through a single tap of a button.
The latter solution lets companies easily add crypto into their treasury through secure, high yield, crypto-backed holdings.
Portage Ventures partner Stephanie Choo said, ?There has been unprecedented interest in DeFi this past year, but still huge hurdles for the average consumer to access this new economy. Were excited to back Conduit, as we believe bridging the DeFi and Fintech worlds is a massive opportunity.
?The Conduit API will allow a whole new set of consumers to participate directly from platforms they already use. Were already seen significant interest from both FinTechs and corporates in Conduit solution.p>
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