Exclusive Pitch Deck DeFi Startup Teller Used to Raise $6.85 Million

• Ryan Berkun, a self-taught software developer, just raised $6.8 million for his DeFi startup Teller.
• Teller helps entrepreneurs borrow and lend through no-collateral loans on the blockchain.
• Berkun pursued investors who could help him build relationships in traditional finance and crypto.

Ryan Berkun, a self-taught software developer, dreamed of a startup that helped make decentralized-finance products more mainstream. Yet questions like how to fundraise, how to create relationships with banks, and how to build the infrastructure played in his head, he told Insider.

“Those dilemmas brought me down the rabbit hole of different technologies,” Berkun said. “And slowly but surely, I became obsessed with this idea that we can remove the people who today hold the keys, the gatekeepers.”

That’s his hope for the startup he founded, Teller, a decentralized lending market that offers no-collateral loans on the blockchain. Teller’s protocol removes the middleman of big banks, he said, and allows users to not only be borrowers but also lenders. Berkun said he wants to make borrowing and loaning easier for entrepreneurs. 

In February, Teller secured $6.85 million led by Blockchain Capital in what appears to be a Series A round. The founder wouldn’t comment on the funding stage, instead calling it a “strategic round,” but it follows a $1 million seed round raised in July 2020, according to Crunchbase.

Berkun wanted to focus on building relationships within the traditional financial tech and nontraditional cryptocurrency markets in its latest round. He specifically wanted a lead investor that specialized in blockchain technologies with a general understanding of fintech.

So he contacted his immediate network to see if anyone could introduce him to venture-capital partners or general partners. He then lined up calls with VCs within two weeks to build investor excitement and enthusiasm around the deal. “Investors talk,” he said. “You want to make sure that those conversations are all happening in line.”

Once Blockchain Capital decided to lead the round, Teller was able to follow up on the conversations with financial tech investors like Franklin Templeton, Toyota Ventures, Upstart Network, and others, to have them join the round.

Now read the 11-slide pitch deck that Teller used to raise $6.85 million.