Merlin Egalite

Merlin Egalite (born 1997) is a French business executive and engineer. He is know for co-founding Morpho Labs, a research and development company that focuses on the development of the Morpho decentralize finance (DeFi) lending network, where he serves as the Integration Team Lead.

Early life and education

Merlin Egalite initially aimed to become a fighter pilot and pursued a scientific high school diploma with a focus on sports studies. He obtained his private pilot license at the age of 16 and subsequently attended a Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles with the intention of entering military academies. However, he later determined that he could not meet the physical requirements necessary for a career as a fighter pilot, which led him to shift his focus toward entrepreneurship.

In 2018, Merlin Egalite enrolled at CentraleSuélec, a French engineering school, where he studies subjects including computer science, mathematics, business management, and physics, eventually specializing in artificial intelligence. During his time at the school, he became involved with Genius Global, a student organization that promotes entrepreneurship across 16 French universities, and served as president of the CentraleSuélec chapter for one year. In his final year, he was selected to participate in the Digital Tech Year, a program aimed at top information technology students that focuses on data science and web development.

Career

Merlin Egalite began his work in the cryptocurrency sector in 2018, contributing to various open-source projects such as Giveth, Common Stack, and Kleros, with an emphasis on smart contract security.

After graduation from CentraleSuélec, Merlin co-founded Morpho alongside Telecom Sud Paris graduates Julien Thomas, Mathis Gontier Delaunay. The team initially operated from a University dormitory and later secured $18 million in funding from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Variant. Morpho has since evolved into a significant lending protocol, with an additional fundraising round led by Ribbit Capital and participation from over 40 other investors.

In 2022, Merlin's company Morpho launched its first protocol, known as Morpho V0 (Morpho Optimizer), which introduced a new model for decentralized lending. Within 18 months, the protocol facilitated over $1 billion in deposits.

Recognition

In 2024, Merlin was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe Finance list.