Tenor is building a non-custodial lending platform for asset managers and large borrowers, giving them access to fixed-rate lending markets with the most advanced execution in the space.

To accelerate our mission, we’re excited to announce that Tenor has raised a seed round led by Variant, with participation from Nascent.

The round also includes renewed support from Prelude, Coinbase Ventures, Lattice, Very Early, and angel investors.

The global fixed-rate market is $200 trillion, and most of it still runs on legacy infrastructure. Large segments trade in a non-standardized fashion, coordinated over phone calls and managed using spreadsheets. These are the markets with the most to gain from moving onchain: better access to capital, more transparency, lower costs, and 24/7 settlement.

Tenor is building for a world where finance runs on stablecoins and onchain lending markets become the primary way capital is lent and borrowed. Our aim is to give businesses and asset managers simple access to onchain lending markets, with the tools they need: customizable markets (e.g., whitelisted markets, grace periods), organization accounts with roles and permissions, OTC matching, and advanced execution.

Tenor is built on Midnight, Morpho’s new fixed-rate lending primitive. As an early collaborator, Tenor extends Midnight with key features. Variant, Nascent, and Prelude were all early backers of Morpho, and their investment in Tenor reflects a shared belief that onchain lending markets are a massive opportunity, and that much can be built on top of Morpho’s primitives.

Tenor is live on Base, with deployments on other chains coming soon. Key features include auto-renewal of positions at maturity, OTC offers for bespoke agreements, and advanced execution (e.g., earn variable rate on pending limit orders).

For curators, lending desks, and funds, Tenor offers organization accounts with role-based permissions and portfolio monitoring across wallets, multisigs, and vaults. Tenor currently supports crypto-backed lending markets and will soon expand to FX and credit.

We’re excited to partner with Variant and Nascent as we continue building the best platform to lend and borrow onchain.