The funding initiates a multi-year, comprehensive growth roadmap designed to see Maple establish itself beyond DeFi and into the world of traditional finance “as a lending marketplace and technology provider.”
As noted in a blog post, Maple has closed “a $5 million strategic funding round.”
Led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital, this investment round “welcomes Room40 Ventures, Cherry Crypto, Spartan Capital, GSR Ventures, and Veris Ventures to the Maple ecosystem. Maple also received commitments in the round from previous long-time supporters Maven 11 and Framework Ventures.”
The funding initiates “a multi-year, comprehensive growth roadmap designed to see Maple establish itself beyond DeFi and into the world of traditional finance as a leading lending marketplace and technology platform.”
Thomas Klocanas, General Partner & Head of Venture Blocktower Capital said:
“We’re extremely excited to announce our continued support for Maple as they continue on their path towards building a leading lending platform, doubling down on their early success in the crypto-native market. By enabling third-party credit experts to operate and scale lending businesses on-chain, we believe Maple is a natural, value-add gateway for institutions to enter the space and foster sustainable growth in the digital asset market as a whole. We’re pleased to co-lead the round with Tioga Capital and play an active role in Maple’s growth looking ahead.”
As part of Maple’s commitment to transform capital markets with blockchain technology, the team will now build “upon early achievements to take advantage of the opportunities ahead by executing against a strategic growth roadmap.”
The roadmap focuses on “expanding into the regions APAC and LATAM where Maple sees a strong demand for institutional and compliant on-chain lending and borrowing.”
The capital injection will allow Maple “to forge new partnerships with protocols, financial services providers, and credit professionals, whilst continuing to build its decentralized technology.”
Delivering against this roadmap will see Maple evolve to be “a vibrant and diverse debt-capital marketplace where institutions globally come to connect to credit opportunities and where its lending infrastructure is broadly adopted by banks and traditional lenders.”
Sidney Powell, CEO and Co-Founder, Maple Finance, said:
“Maple has always been driven by the vision of establishing the landscape of institutional on-chain capital markets. This funding round marks a pivotal moment in our evolution as we embark on a strategic expansion. Our mission remains clear—to bridge the Web3 and traditional finance industries with a robust, on-chain capital infrastructure that sets new standards and creates opportunities for the entire ecosystem.”
Throughout 2023, Maple has “experienced continuous growth.” In April, Maple launched its Cash Management Solution “which goes from strength to strength.”
In June, Maple announced “the launch of Maple Direct, its direct lending arm, to underwrite and issue loans to Web3 companies.” Since its inception in May 2021, Maple’s pools have facilitated over $2 billion “in loan originations, served 1,500 lenders, 87 borrowers, and 8 pool delegates across 15 pools on Ethereum and Solana.”