Financial technology-focused startup Spring Labs Inc. has raised $23 million in new funding to assist it in developing its blockchain-based network.

The Series A round was led by GreatPoint Ventures and included August Capital, General Motors Ventures, RRE Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, The Pritzker Group and CardWorks.

Founded in 2016, Spring Labs is developing the Spring Protocol, a blockchain-based ecosystem designed to allow users to exchange credit and identity information without sharing underlying source data. It’s intended to allow lenders, banks and data providers to exchange data with one another more easily and cheaply. The company said the protocol offers a more efficient, transparent and secure ecosystem for consumer financial data than the one that exists today.

The protocol itself is described as a “second-generation blockchain” in that it incorporates both public and permissioned nodes to facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements and enforce information security through the use of privacy-preserving smart contracts.

The first products being built on the blockchain-based Spring Protocol are Spring Verify for enhanced identity verification, Spring Defense for fraud monitoring and mitigation, and Spring Protect for loan stacking prevention.

“These products are designed to improve customer on-boarding processes by reducing costs while improving data availability, security and granularity,” the company said in a statement. “The products will deliver valuable anonymous data to lenders in a variety of verticals, including unsecured consumer lending, small business lending, credit card issuance, secured auto lending, and more.”

Spring Labs last raised money, $14.75 million in a seed round ,in March 2018. Including the new funding, the company has raised $37.8 million to date.

Image: Spring Labs