Hot on the heels of its $36.1 million CAD Series A raise in May, Ledn Inc. announced it has raised $70 million USD ($90.3 million CAD) in Series B funding in an all-equity round. The global digital asset savings and credit startup claims it’s now valued at $540 million USD (696.9 million CAD).
10T Holdings led the Series B round. Golden Tree Asset Management, Raptor Group and FJ Labs were among the list of new Ledn investors. In addition, 10T Holdings’ managing partner and CEO, Dan Tapiero, will join Ledn’s board of directors. The round closed on November 29.
Ledn will use the funds to support the growth of its digital asset lending business, including its new Bitcoin-backed mortgage product. It also plans to use the money to hire more staff, develop other, new digital asset financial products, and expand upon its segment of local products for English, Spanish and Portuguese-language users.
Ledn offers savings accounts for Bitcoin and US Dollar Coin (USDC, a stablecoin backed by Coinbase and pegged to the US dollar). The startup also offers Bitcoin-backed loans, through which customers can put up their Bitcoin, receive fiat currency in exchange, and get back the Bitcoin once the loan is repaid.
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All existing venture investors followed-on in the Series B round, including White Star Capital, Kingsway Capital, Coinbase Ventures, billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, Parafi Capital, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, Global Founders Capital, Hashed, CMT Digital, Ascendant Capital and co-founder of Pfeffer Capital, John Pfeffer.
Ledn claimed its new Bitcoin-backed mortgage is the first of its kind to market.
The mortgage will enable Ledn clients to use their Bitcoin holdings to purchase a property while continuing to potentially benefit from any price appreciation of both assets, according to the startup.
Currently in pilot mode, the Bitcoin-backed mortgage is slated to be available to clients in the United States and Canada in early 2022. Ledn claimed it already has a growing waitlist for the product, and is targeting over $100 million in Bitcoin-backed mortgages by the end of Q1 2022.
The mortgage will allow customers to blend equal amounts of Bitcoin and property collateral as part of the mortgage loan.
Ledn claimed that its client base in 127 countries, with 44 percent of its loan clients in Latin America, acted as a “key driver” for the Series B raise.
The startup was founded in 2018 and is led by CEO Adam Reeds. Ledn claims to have seen significant growth since its $3.4 million seed round, which closed at the beginning of this year.
Ledn claimed that since the third quarter of 2020, assets on its platform exceed $1.7 billion, a 4,000 percent year-over-year increase.
