At the beginning of the year, Miami-based digital lender Milo launched the first-ever 30-year crypto mortgage, in which clients who use the company’s services can pledge their Bitcoin to purchase a property.
Today, Milo announced a $17 million Series A funding round led by California-based venture capital firm M13, with participation from QED Investors and MetaProp, who were also investors in the previous seed round.
Since Milo was first established in 2019, it has been developing unique financial solutions for global consumers. In January 2022, it launched the crypto mortgage and has begun processing applications from its wait list of more than 7,400 consumers. Milo believes it has drummed up enough interest among those with crypto wealth to utilize their digital assets to invest in real estate, the company said. It plans to use the additional funding to continue product development and accelerate its hiring efforts to keep up with demand, it said.
"We are excited to announce this new funding and welcome M13 as investors," said Milo CEO Josip Rupena. "This round of financing is a validation of Milo's vision to empower global and crypto consumers and the opportunity to bridge the digital world with real world real estate assets. This is a multibillion-dollar opportunity and we are proud to be pioneering the efforts in the U.S. for consumers that have unconventional wealth. We're thrilled to have amazing investor support that recognizes that the world is changing and look forward to them being on this journey with us."
The company’s first crypto mortgage solution is geared specifically for foreign nationals, and has grown more than 250% in the last 12 months while processing over $500 million in applications from over 90 countries.
"We are thrilled to lead Milo's Series A round,” said Latif Peracha, partner at M13. “As someone who has deep expertise on Wall Street and has also been an active participant in the crypto markets, Josip truly has founder-market fit. The crypto mortgage product is groundbreaking and will open up access to individuals who are holding a growing amount of digital assets.
Peracha added, "We also believe the existing foreign national product will become a significant business line, given the under-served needs in that $1 trillion market. It is rare to find a business like Milo that can be a leader in both creating a new market and penetrating a large existing one.”
"As an early investor at the previous seed round, QED is extremely excited to continue to support Milo," said QED Investors Partner Matt Burton. "The crypto market has been underserved by wealth management products and Milo is blazing a trail by launching the first 30-year mortgage that allows for a zero-percent down payment in exchange for pledging your crypto. The meta theme here is that Milo's crypto mortgage product allows people to put their crypto to work. Josip has built an amazing team to lean into this product and Milo is now incredibly well positioned at the center of Miami's hub of crypto startup activity as the city becomes the crypto capital of the U.S."
