Eco raises $60m in crypto-lending funding round

The US fintech startup Eco raised $60 million in a funding round led by Activant Capital and L Catterton.

📰💰🗞Big news: @ActivantCapital and @L_Catterton are co-leading a new $60 million fundraising round in @Eco, joined by existing investors like @a16z Crypto and dozens of newcomers including @LightspeedVP, LionTree Partners and Valor Equity Partners.https://t.co/1eHxexjpe7

— Eco (@eco) July 27, 2021

The statement said that participation in the round included some of the company’s existing investors, including a16z Crypto, and a number of new players, among them: Lightspeed Venture Partners, LionTree Partners, Valor Equity Partners and others.

Eco, through its financial app, offers higher interest on fiat deposits than traditional bank savings accounts. The base rate is 2.5% per year, and through the referral program it can reach up to 5%.

The platform also offers cashback on purchases from partner merchants. The startup uses user deposits to lend to crypto companies in the USDC stablecoin from the Centre consortium.

A crypto-lending firm BlockFi, which regulators in New Jersey, Alabama, Texas and Vermont suspected of violating securities laws. The media reported on a possible investigation by the Justice Department into Tether, the issuer of the largest by market capitalization stablecoin USDT.

“We are monitoring these cases very closely and intend to ensure that all our activities are aligned with the current understanding of all applicable rules,” commented on information by Eco CEO Andy Bromberg.

He said that the startup does not yet expect regulators’ claims against BlockFi to affect the operations of other similar platforms, including Eco.

Regarding the raised financing, Bromberg said that it is planned to be directed to doubling the headcount in the next six months. The team currently numbers 25 employees.

Increasing their numbers is intended to support rapid growth of the user base by processing a waitlist of more than 180,000 people. According to Bromberg, this will double the number of app users. Hiring new staff will also accelerate bringing products to market, he noted.

In March 2021 the startup raised $26 million in funding.

Earlier, BlockFi stated that, despite regulatory pressure, they expect to close the Series E round at a valuation of around $4.75 billion.

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