The founders of crypto startup Glider want to help people invest in crypto more easily without having to deal with brokers or centralized exchanges.
To do so, Glider seeks to let users automate crypto trading, swaps, and other activities involved in decentralized finance in a personalized way, co-founder Brian Huang told Fortune. Decentralized finance, or DeFi, refers to a sector of the crypto industry that uses blockchains and digital contracts to offer financial services without intermediaries like banks.
“Glider does everything behind the scenes or runs in the background, but you have full control of your assets and you still get the underlying utility of all those assets,” Huang said.
On Wednesday, the one-year-old company said it has raised $4 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation by Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Ventures, and GSR. The company did not disclose its valuation in the funding round.
Glider also announced its participation in the Andreessen Horowitz Crypto Startup Accelerator in San Francisco this spring.
The New-York based company plans to use artificial intelligence to help users tweak their crypto investments to their desired specifications. This can involve cherry-picking a few coins to hold in an ETF-like structure or holding trending tokens on a particular chain, Huang said. Using AI in combination with DeFi, Glider plans to let users control their crypto assets without constantly having to make trades themselves.
“Everyone should be able to tune their portfolio exactly how they want it, automate it and do exactly what you would like to do within your own risk profile and tolerance,” Glider co-founder John Johnson told Fortune.
Glider is still testing its technology, which it plans to launch in the coming months. The company plans to make money by charging users a management fee based on a percentage of the customer’s assets under management.
There are already many companies, including Bitwise and Grayscale, that help customers manage their crypto investments. However, Huang says Glider is different because, unlike traditional asset managers, it will not take custody of users’ assets.
“It’s a lot like these traditional finance advisors, but we do it completely non-custodial,” Huang said, meaning that Glider will use blockchain technology to let users maintain control of their investments at all times.
The money raised in this funding round will be used to hire more employees and develop the company’s marketing strategy, Huang said.
