Rewards-Focused Startup Eco Raises $26M in Round Led by a16z Crypto

Eco, a cryptocurrency startup that claims it's building a new type of finance platform, has opened to the public with a fresh investment of $26 million under its belt.

According to a blog post Friday, the firm's second fundraise was led by a16z Crypto – the digital asset investment arm of Andreessen Horowitz – with Founders Fund, Activant Capital, Slow Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Tribe Capital, Valor Capital Group and more also participating.

CoinList co-founder Andy Bromberg took up the top job at Eco last October, as CoinDesk reported at the time.

Read more: Startup Backed by Uber Co-Founder Poaches CoinList President Andy Bromberg

Eco's sales pitch is that its platform is "not a bank, checking account, or credit card. We’re building something better than all of those combined."

Eco offers rewards on both crypto-asset savings and spending at firms like Amazon and Uber (Eco founder Garrett Camp is an Uber co-founder). Users will see cashback of up to 5% on spending and will earn 2.5%–5% annually with assets just sitting in their accounts, per the post. The top rate for savings is dependent on referrals to friends.

The startup says it can afford to do this by "cutting out the inefficiencies and misaligned business models of the existing financial system."

"Eco’s mission is to reimagine not only how consumer financial products work — but also to reimagine money itself," a16z Crypto's Katie Haun and Arianna Simpson said in a blog post about the investment. "Without the burden of legacy, misaligned business models, Eco is able to offer rewards that sound almost too good to be true, but aren’t."

The company, which has just opened up from private alpha mode, previously raised $8.5 million in a round led by Expa (Camp's startup studio) and crypto investment firm Pantera Capital.