The unsecured digital asset lending and borrowing firm Teller is detailing a $6.85 million strategic funding initiative spearheaded by Blockchain Capital and a series of other partners.
The effort establishes an open order book protocol enabling third parties to build their own marketplaces for unsecured decentralized finance (DeFi) lending.
“Teller is paving the way for a traditional financial primitive to enter the DeFi space: data-driven, unsecured lending and borrowing,” Teller Founder and CEO Ryan Berkun said. “The ability to append data to a loan request will transform how we interact with DeFi and unlock lending opportunities only currently available in traditional financial markets.”
Franklin Templeton, Toyota Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Upstart Network, Signum Capital, and United Overseas Bank have joined Blockchain Capital in the transaction.
“Unsecured lending is a thorny problem in the pseudonymous on-chain world and one of the largest opportunities for DeFi,”
Blockchain Capital Co-Founder and Managing Partner Bart Stephens said. “The Teller Protocol enables traditional and crypto native lenders to use the best credit scoring techniques possible while preserving privacy and tapping into decentralized liquidity pools.”
Teller’s protocol enables asset loan requests to append any amount or type of data – adding the data can include details on a borrower’s financial standing, social status, or identity.