DeFi Startup Compound Finance Raises $25 Million Series A Led by A16z

Lending protocol Compound Finance just raised $25 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz's a16z crypto fund, marking one of the largest venture capital investments in a decentralized finance startup to date.

According to DeFipulse.com, Compound has nearly $103 million worth of crypto locked up in its automated system, which can generate returns for lenders comparable to interest.

Today's announcement of the Series A follows Compound's $8.2 million seed round in 2018.

According to DeFi Pulse, Compound's decentralized finance has nearly $103 million worth of crypto locked up in the automated system.

Unlike MakerDAO loans the Compound protocol supports multiple assets and allows people to lock up assets without borrowing.

Compound founder Robert Leshner said that so far "Teams in crypto that have stockpiles of DAI and crypto" are the most frequent protocol users.

Leshner said this recent round will help the San Francisco-based company further "Decentralize" the protocol by setting it up so that crypto exchanges and custodians, like Coinbase, can maintain the protocol going forward.

"We're planning to integrate Compound into as many custodians, exchanges, wallets, and brokers as we can," Leshner said, "To allow exchanges and custodians to be the interface of the protocol."

For now, Leshner said the 12-person Compound team is focused on building this public infrastructure for institutions to tap into, rather than finding a unique business model for the startup itself.

"Our highest priority is building something that is sustainable. From there we could probably build on top of the protocol."