Glider's First Funding Round
— Brian Huang, Co-Founder at Glider
Today, we’re proud to announce Glider has raised $4 million in a strategic round led by a16z CSX, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Labs, First Commit, Selini Capital, GSR, Generative Ventures, Pivot Global, Anagram and MoonPay Ventures. This capital isn't just funding. It's fuel for our mission to transform crypto investing from a technical obstacle course into a seamless experience where strategy, not execution, becomes the focus.
A little backstory on our origins and how we got here: Glider was born out of an incubation with Anagram, a VC fund led by Lily Liu and Joe Eagan. We're the first project (of hopefully many future projects) to spin out and raise a round. We get asked all the time what does "incubation" mean in this context? Anagram was willing to take a bet on us and ideate with us to formalize what Glider eventually became. Beyond early capital, they also provided hiring resources, operational support, technical expertise, legal, and warm intros to any VC. If you are an entrepreneur with an idea, we highly recommend joining their EIR program.
As for this fundraise, John and I thought a lot about what would make an ideal cap table and then worked backwards. Our goal was geographical diversification and true strategic partners that could help us accelerate and distribute Glider. Reflecting back, we feel fortunate to have accomplished that goal. Our backers span the Americas, Europe, and Asia. We have a big lead, a CEX, a DEX, market makers, an on/off ramp, and medium and small crypto-native VCs and syndicates. We're confident that this mix is setting Glider up for success.
What now?
I'm writing this blog from San Francisco, which is not home to anyone on our team — although both John and Patryk, our Head Designer, lived here while at 0x. We're here because we're part of a16z's CSX 04 Cohort, immersing ourselves in a new focus each week and learning alongside founders building everything from AI infrastructure to onchain intelligence platforms.
Meanwhile, our beta has been quietly growing. We've onboarded a sizeable group of testers who have created diverse portfolios. Their feedback has been invaluable, pointing us towards UX refinements that make portfolio creation more intuitive and revealing unexpected patterns in how people think about asset allocation.
One of our most revealing experiences was a university trading competition we hosted across 12 universities including Berkeley, Cornell and Waterloo. We watched as teams obsessively refined their strategies to climb the leaderboard, sometimes checking results multiple times daily. This competitive dynamic transformed their engagement in ways we hadn't anticipated, showing us how the social and gamification dimension of investing could be as powerful as the technical one. This insight is directly shaping our development. Beyond just executing transactions flawlessly, we're exploring how community, competition, and collaboration can make the investing experience richer without sacrificing the calm, automated execution that defines Glider.
Behind the scenes, we're also building bridges to the broader ecosystem. Several integration partnerships are in development that will bring Glider's automated portfolios to users across different platforms and contexts. We'll share details when our partners are ready to announce, but each integration with Glider's API represents a step toward our vision of making sophisticated portfolio management accessible to all types of investors.
This funding gives us the resources to scale our team (see our careers page!) and focus entirely on bringing this vision to life. We're approaching a full launch sooner than you might expect, and early supporters will find themselves with advantages that late adopters won't have. If you want early access, join our waitlist on glider.fi. If you are keen to integrate with us, reach out via X, Telegram or Discord, and check out our API Docs.
We’re building for long-term investors, thoughtful builders, and anyone who believes the future of crypto portfolios should feel seamless and calm.
Let’s glide.
— Brian, John and the Glider Team 🦇♾️
