{"id":46843,"date":"2021-07-28T15:30:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T12:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=46843"},"modified":"2025-09-01T18:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:28:17","slug":"eco-raises-60m-in-crypto-lending-funding-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/eco-raises-60m-in-crypto-lending-funding-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco raises $60m in crypto-lending funding round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US fintech startup Eco raised $60 million in a funding round led by Activant Capital and L Catterton.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udcf0\ud83d\udcb0\ud83d\udddeBig news: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ActivantCapital?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ActivantCapital<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/L_Catterton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@L_Catterton<\/a> are co-leading a new $60 million fundraising round in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eco?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Eco<\/a>, joined by existing investors like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/a16z?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@a16z<\/a> Crypto and dozens of newcomers including <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lightspeedvp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@LightspeedVP<\/a>, LionTree Partners and Valor Equity Partners.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1eHxexjpe7\">https:\/\/t.co\/1eHxexjpe7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eco (@eco) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eco\/status\/1420036914669752322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 27, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The statement said that participation in the round included some of the company&#8217;s existing investors, including a16z Crypto, and a number of new players, among them: Lightspeed Venture Partners, LionTree Partners, Valor Equity Partners and others.<\/p>\n<p>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%.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>A crypto-lending firm BlockFi, which regulators in <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/regulator-bars-blockfi-from-opening-new-accounts-for-new-jersey-residents\">New Jersey<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/alabama-regulator-accuses-blockfi-of-selling-unregistered-securities\">Alabama<\/a>, Texas and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/vermont-regulators-launch-probe-into-blockfis-activities\">Vermont<\/a> suspected of violating securities laws. The media <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bloomberg-reports-us-justice-department-has-opened-an-inquiry-into-tether-the-company-calls-the-news-clickbait\">reported<\/a> on a possible investigation by the Justice Department into Tether, the issuer of the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/tether-marketisation-tops-50-billion\">largest by market capitalization<\/a> stablecoin USDT.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe are monitoring these cases very closely and intend to ensure that all our activities are aligned with the current understanding of all applicable rules,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/finance\/news\/crypto-fintech-eco-raises-60m-130332365.html\">commented<\/a> on information by Eco CEO Andy Bromberg.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He said that the startup does not yet expect regulators&#8217; claims against BlockFi to affect the operations of other similar platforms, including Eco.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>In March 2021 the startup raised $26 million in funding.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, BlockFi <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/blockfi-to-close-investment-round-and-push-ahead-with-ipo-amid-regulatory-pressure\">stated<\/a> that, despite regulatory pressure, they expect to close the Series E round at a valuation of around $4.75 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US fintech startup Eco raised $60 million in a funding round led by Activant Capital and L Catterton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1097,1133],"class_list":["post-46843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-lending","tag-venture-investments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"61","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46845,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46843\/revisions\/46845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}