Intain Inc., a blockchain-enabled structured finance platform for issuers and investors to connect in an efficient, secure and trusted way, recently announced “the completion of a round of funding.”
The funds will be used “to help scale Intain MARKETS, a structured finance marketplace scheduled for launch in July.”
The limited funding round “included participation from investors who share Intain’s vision of bringing traditional financial institutions and real world assets on blockchain.”
Lead investors “included Blizzard, a venture capital and incubation fund managed by the Avalanche Foundation and supporting projects in the Avalanche community, and JAM FINTOP Blockchain, a financial institution focused blockchain infrastructure venture fund.”
Intain’s servicing and administration platform, Intain ADMIN, has “achieved incremental adoption within the asset securitization space.” With assets approaching $5B in value across a variety of classes and deal structures currently being administered on Intain ADMIN, the company claims it is “well positioned for the next phase of growth and launch of Intain MARKETS, its marketplace for structured finance.”
Intain plans to launch Intain MARKETS in the summer of 2022 and will “use the funds of the investment round to procure intellectual property rights for the artificial intelligence software for validating assets, while ramping up technical teams in India, and product and sales teams in the U.S.”
Siddhartha, Founder and CEO of Intain, said:
“Avalanche and JAM FINTOP represent the strategic blending of two financial worlds and align with Intain’s mission of building the digital future of traditional structured finance, enabled by blockchain. We are neither creating a new asset class nor do we offer 15% APY risk free returns. We are building a transparent and efficient version of the existing financial system. We’ve put the hard work into developing the most resilient structured finance administration platform on blockchain and are delighted to be recognized by blockchain industry leaders and prominent financial services companies, who are investing in our platform as we build a marketplace.”
Intain chose Avalanche for Intain MARKETS because of “the subnet architecture and its focus on DeFi.” Subnet architecture “allows platforms like Intain to create a permissioned space for selected financial institutions.”
Lydia Chiu, Vice President of Business Development at Ava Labs, on behalf of the Blizzard Fund, stated:
“Subnets will catalyze explosive growth and adoption of institutional DeFi. Each Subnet can be tailored to the precise needs of the application, including tweakable gas fees, economics, validator sets, KYC requirements, and much more. We’re excited to support Intain as it launches the first structured finance marketplace with end-to-end administration on-chain.”
Uniting the issuer, verification agent, underwriter, servicer, trustee, rating agency and investor on an integrated and automated platform, Intain will “make a $10-20M structured finance transaction viable.”
This ability to securitize at smaller increments will “enable a greater concentration of asset lenders access to a wider investor pool and make their capital raise more efficient.”
In addition to bringing in a new set of investors attracted by smaller ticket sizes, with the transparency and auditability established on the blockchain, it will “provide better risk-adjusted returns to current investors and cycle capital at a faster pace.” This is one of the key advantages of “running verification and administration of loans through blockchain.”
Ryan Zacharia, General Partner at JAM Special Opportunity Ventures, remarked;
“We invest in companies that are committed to solving the problems of the financial world, so Intain is a natural fit for our portfolio and network of over 90 regulated financial institutions. Intain’s mission to use blockchain technology to enable structured finance is essential for an industry historically burdened with complexities, inefficiencies and intermediaries, and we believe its go-to-market strategy aligns with how businesses will adopt and use distributed ledger technology in this space over time. We believe Intain possesses the team, technology and strategic partners to become the primary engine for bringing real world structured credits on chain.”
As noted in the update, Intain is “building blockchain-enabled digital platforms for transparency and efficiency in capital market transactions, with initial focus on structured finance.”
Founded by financial services business and technology veterans, Intain understands “the impact – benefits and risk – of technology in financial services.”
Intain is “committed to diversity in fintech and more than 50% of its employees are women.”