Morpho, a decentralized lending platform, has raised $50 million in a funding round led by Ribbit Capital, a major investor in fintech companies such as Revolut, Coinbase, and Robinhood.
The funds were raised through a private token sale, although the exact valuation of Morpho or the token following this investment has not been disclosed.
Participation of Industry Heavyweights
The private token sale also attracted prominent investors such as a16z crypto, Pantera, Coinbase, BlockTower, Variant, Brevan Howard, and Kraken Ventures.
Other investors participating in this funding round include Hack VC, IOSG, Rockaway, L1D, Mirana, Cherry, Semantic, Fenbushi, Leadblock, Bitpanda, and Robot Ventures.
This funding round follows a previous raise of $18 million in 2022, when Paul Frambot, CEO of Morpho, was still a university student.
Our ambition has always been to take DeFi out of its restricted framework and integrate it into public financial infrastructures.
We need to bridge the gap between DeFi and the fintech world, and Ribbit is an ideal partner for that.
Paul Frambot, CEO of Morpho
Evolution of Morpho
Morpho has undergone significant transformation since its launch two years ago. Originally designed as an optimization layer to improve interest rates for users of platforms like Aave and Compound, Morpho has evolved into a core infrastructure called Morpho Blue.
This new infrastructure allows other developers to build crypto lending applications with their own risk management strategies.
Deposits in Morpho Vaults have recently seen a steady and impressive increase, particularly on Base, where the TVL has soared, even briefly surpassing Aave to claim the top spot.
Impact and Synergies
The partnership with Ribbit Capital and other fintech investors will provide Morpho with extensive distribution channels, such as those of Robinhood and Revolut. These collaborations aim to design flexible use cases for lending and borrowing, without fragmenting liquidity.
There are already incredible synergies in what we could achieve together for real-world integrations.
