Birch Hill raises $4M to bring US loans onchain

The New York startup's seed round was led by Multicoin Capital, and it plans to eventually put apartment, farm and energy loans on public blockchains Birch Hill wants to take some of the least glamorous corners of American lending and put them onchain. Apartment buildings, farms, and energy projects are on its list. The New York startup said Wednesday it closed a $4 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital. ParaFi Capital, Castle Island Ventures, and Nascent also joined the round. What Birch Hill is building The company’s long-term plan is to securitize multifamily, agriculture, and energy loans onchain. Securitization means bundling many individual loans into one investable product. Investors then buy slices of that bundle instead of underwriting each loan themselves. Birch Hill’s pitch is to run that process on public blockchains instead of through layers of intermediaries and paperwork. The startup was founded by Wall Street alumni. Its team includes executives with experience at financial firms like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. Bhavin Vaid serves as CEO, and Connor Flanagan serves as COO. The hiring tells a parallel story. Birch Hill has brought on three people from Yearn an...