Kasu, a DeFi lending protocol, has raised USD 3 million in seed funding led by Woodstock, Morningstar Ventures, and Faculty Group, with participation from Cypher Capital, Matterblock, Andromeda Capital, NxGen, Rarestone Ventures, Asteroid Capital, and Optic Capital.

The company plans to use the funding to further develop its platform.

Formed as a joint venture between Apxium Technologies (an Australia-based FinTech accounts receivables automation platform) and Faculty Group (a Web3 consortium), Kasu offers a blockchain-based platform that connects DeFi lenders with real-world business borrowers. Lenders can deposit their crypto funds, which are converted to denominated pool currency, and earn risk-adjusted fixed and variable yields, while business borrowers can submit funding opportunities for review, acceptance, and addition.

Analyst QuickTake: DeFi lending has seen growing levels of activity in the last six months, with a number of startups raising funding. These include Curvance , Term Structure Labs , and Versifi , which raised USD 3.6 million , USD 4.3 million , and USD 10 million , respectively, during the last two months. Kasu aims to differentiate itself by providing its services to real-world businesses and institutions as opposed to DeFi borrowers to improve credit risk for lenders.