Maple, the leading institutional on-chain capital marketplace, has announced its $5 million strategic funding round led by Blocktower Capital and Tioga Capital, welcoming Cherry Ventures, Spartan Capital, GSR Ventures, and Veris Ventures. Maple also received commitments in the round from previous long-time supporters Maven 11 and Framework Ventures.
This marks the first step in Maple’s strategic global expansion, with a focus on the APAC region, where Maple sees a strong demand for institutional and compliant on-chain lending and borrowing adoption. The capital injection will allow the network to forge new partnerships with protocols, financial services providers, and credit professionals in the region to extend its industry-leading on-chain capital markets infrastructure and direct lending offerings across APAC.
Sidney Powell, CEO and co-founder of Maple, said, “Maple has always been driven by the vision of revolutionizing the landscape of institutional on-chain capital markets. This funding round marks a pivotal moment in our evolution as we embark on a strategic expansion into the APAC region as part of a comprehensive growth plan for Maple. The network is poised to further scale its technology and forge partnerships that enable compliant and seamless lending and borrowing adoption across the APAC region, specifically in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. Our mission remains clear—to bridge the Web3 and traditional finance industries with a robust, on-chain capital infrastructure that sets new standards and creates opportunities for the entire ecosystem.”
The funding also initiates a multi-year, comprehensive growth roadmap designed to widen the adoption of Maple’s lending and borrowing network, and Maple Direct, its new direct lending arm, to cater to diverse customer segments and regions. This includes attracting top-tier credit experts to operate lending pools on the marketplace, and continuing to build its proprietary financial technology.
Thomas Klocanas, General Partner & Head of Venture Blocktower Capital said, “We’re extremely excited to announce our continued support for Maple as they continue on their path towards building a leading lending platform, doubling down on their early success in the crypto-native market. By enabling third-party credit experts to operate and scale lending businesses on-chain, we believe Maple is a natural, value-add gateway for institutions to enter the space and foster sustainable growth in the digital asset market as a whole. We’re pleased to co-lead the round with Tioga Capital and play an active role in Maple’s growth looking ahead.”
Over the past year, Maple has experienced continuous growth. In April, Maple launched its Cash Management pool, providing an on-chain cash management solution that simplifies access to US Treasury bill yields. In June, Maple announced the launch of Maple Direct, its direct lending arm, to underwrite and issue loans to Web3 companies. Since its inception in May 2021, Maple’s pools have facilitated over $2 billion in loan originations.
To learn more about Maple, visit https://maple.finance/.