NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arch, the first lending platform to provide a single loan across combined alternative assets, announces its official launch today. With an increase of individual investors holding their wealth in alternative assets, and projections of assets under management to reach $17.2 trillion by 2025, Arch aims to meet the consumer need for loans backed by those assets, starting with crypto and expanding to public stocks, equity in pre-IPO unicorns and real estate.
In the US, there are ~36.7M households under the age of 55 holding between $250K and $3.49M in investable assets, and of these households, an increasing number are adjusting their portfolio allocation to be more heavily weighted on assets beyond stocks, including crypto and other alternatives. Many high-earning individuals are diversifying their portfolios and hold a large portion of their wealth in alternative assets, but traditional lenders are often late adopters of newer technologies and exclude these individuals from accessing debt. To date, no centralized company offers a single loan across combined alternative assets.
“Today, nearly 50% of young investors hold cryptocurrency, and over 80% have stated they are interested in investing in alternative assets,” said Dhruv Patel, CEO of Arch. “With Arch, individuals can use crypto assets as collateral for loans, granting the ability to access capital to make other investments or make other large purchases to accelerate their financial journeys.”
Arch allows investors to take out a single loan across their holistic assets, receive the loan in either USD or stable coins (USDC), and pay back the loan with any combination of the two. Arch is taking a regulatory-first approach and is fully compliant in the jurisdictions it operates in, working with the evolving US regulatory landscape to build a sustainable business. Unlike other lending providers, Arch holds customers’ crypto assets 1:1 with BitGo, the leader in institutional digital asset custody. Arch does not touch customer funds. Additionally, Arch proactively caps exposures to any single person or asset. Arch has disbursed their initial loans for an aggregate amount of $250,000.
Arch is brought to life by co-founders Dhruv Patel (CEO) and Himanshu Sahay (CTO). As an early employee at Brex, Patel worked on the Capital Markets, Credit, and Operations team and helped launch their lending products. Sahay has an extensive background in engineering at high-growth consumer tech companies, building out products at Snapchat, Tinder, and Bird. Patel and Sahay faced challenges obtaining a loan against their crypto and equity in pre-IPO companies from traditional financial institutions, and seeking a solution, they founded Arch.
“The next generation of investors are going beyond traditional investment strategies to include alternative assets and diversify their portfolios, but lending services haven’t kept up. Arch has created a seamless way to lend against alternative assets, and supporting Dhruv and Himanshu’s mission to open this door for investors was an easy decision,” said Sean Judge, an early-stage investor at Castle Island Ventures.
In addition to lending, Arch aims to provide a full suite of financial products and services tailored to individual investors with a large portion of their wealth in alternative assets in order to become the single financial destination for the next-generation. To date, Arch has raised $2.75M from Tribe Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Picus Capital, Global Founders Capital, and more, as well as executives from Brex, Uniswap, Snap, and Clutter.
About Arch
Founded in February 2022, Arch is a next-generation financial technology company that allows alternative asset owners access to debt to maximize their financial potential. Arch welcomes alternative assets as collateral and offers individuals loans that traditional lending services do not, granting them the ability to access capital to make other investments or other large purchases. With an instant approval process, US-based regulatory approach, and competitive rates, Arch makes obtaining a loan against alternative assets seamless.
