Morpho Raises $50 Million to Enhance Decentralized Lending Protocol

Morpho Secures $50 Million in Funding for Decentralized Lending Protocol

Morpho, an innovative decentralized cryptocurrency lending protocol, has successfully raised $50 million in a strategic funding round, led by Ribbit Capital. This prominent venture capital firm is well-known for its early investments in successful fintech companies, including Robinhood, Revolut, and Coinbase. The funding round saw participation from a distinguished group of investors, including a16z crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Pantera, Brevan Howard, BlockTower, and Kraken Ventures. However, the valuation of Morpho following this funding has not been publicly disclosed.

Back in 2022, Morpho had previously raised $18 million while its CEO, Paul Frambot, was still navigating his academic journey in college. The primary objective of Morpho is to bridge the relatively exclusive and often insular realm of decentralized finance (DeFi) with the foundational layers of the internet. Since its inception two years ago, Morpho has transitioned from merely serving as an optimization layer that enhanced interest rates for users of Aave and Compound, occasionally ruffling some feathers in the process, to becoming Morpho Blue. This new phase positions Morpho as a foundational infrastructure that enables others to create their own crypto lending applications with tailored risk-management strategies.

Frambot expressed the company’s long-term vision, stating, “Our ambition has always been: how do we break out of DeFi? How do we ensure that eventually – perhaps not in the immediate future – we can transform private financial infrastructures into public goods?” This vision is significantly bolstered by the strategic involvement of fintech backers like Ribbit Capital, as their portfolio companies, including Robinhood and Revolut, possess vast distribution channels. These channels can leverage Morpho to develop flexible lending and borrowing solutions without fragmenting liquidity.

Frambot elaborated on this collaboration, noting, “We need to bridge the gap for DeFi and facilitate its actual integration into the fintech landscape. Ribbit was a natural partner for that.” He added, “There are already remarkable synergies that we could realize together for potential integrations in the real world, moving beyond the typical crypto leverage use cases that dominate the current DeFi lending landscape.”

In addition to the aforementioned investors, this funding round also saw participation from notable firms including:

• Hack VC
• IOSG
• Rockaway
• L1D
• Mirana
• Cherry
• Semantic
• Fenbushi
• Leadblock
• Bitpanda
• Robot Ventures