Goldfinch, a company enabling peer-to-peer lending through decentralized finance protocols, announced completing a $25 million fundraise led by Andreesen Horowitz (a16z crypto), according to a press release.
The company says it will use the funding to achieve its mission of expanding financial inclusion with an open credit protocol, and intends to accomplish this by leveraging the diverse backgrounds of its investors.
Bill Ackman, Blocktower, Kingsway Capital, Helicap, YC Alumni Fund and Jinglan Wang participated in the round, joining all existing investors such as Kindred Ventures and Stratos Technologies.
The funding follows massive increases in growth and usage of Goldfinch, with active loans on the protocol doubling every two months in 2021. That is 154 times the $250,000 loaned on the protocol a year ago, now reaching $39 million across 200,000 borrowers today.
The company says that capital is being used for a wide range of uses, such as by motorcycle taxis in Kenya, small businesses in Brazil and eco-friendly cookstoves for low-income households in India.
As the protocol continues to accelerate in adoption, the Goldfinch Foundation was also recently established as steward of the protocol; this independent organization structure will serve as legal entity on behalf of the Goldfinch community.
The initial team behind Goldfinch is also spinning out into Warbler Labs, which is set to contribute to the community and broader DeFi ecosystem by providing contributions and maintenance to the protocol.
“Goldfinch’s amazing community of individual and institutional backers has accelerated our ability to bring essential capital, just in time, to teams that are saving our world,” said Gautam Ivatury of ALMA, a borrower on Goldfinch that finances early-stage inclusive lenders and projects that reduce carbon emissions.
“As the Goldfinch protocol gathers even more support and becomes even more flexible, we hope to innovate new ways to fund projects that will transform millions of lives,” Ivatury stated in the release.