Cryptocurrency startup BVNK (pronounced “bee-vee-en-kay”) has closed its $40 million Series A funding round with an additional estimate of $340 million. Interestingly, Tiger Global is leading the rounds despite the news, as it suffered a $17 billion loss in this year’s technical stock sale.
Other investors in the current funding round include The Raba Partnership, Avenir, Kingsway Capital, Nordstar, Concentric, Base Capital and several business angels. BVNK signed earlier than planned last month.
BVNK provides banking and payment services for native cryptocurrency businesses. Companies using BVNK can make fiat and crypto payments, store hundreds of different cryptocurrencies and assets, and send money worldwide.
For the launch of this product, the BVNK team worked on a consumer platform. It was a more traditional cryptocurrency exchange focused on emerging markets and money transfers.
“We started with retail and now it’s just a B2B business. We’ve been looking for the best talent in the crypto world for the past year. We now have 120 people in the company,” BVNK co-founder and CEO Jesse Hemson-Strutters told me.
While cryptocurrencies are having a really bad week, many companies are looking for ways to start supporting cryptocurrencies in one way or another. But it was a difficult process because many banks around the world just don’t want to work with cryptocurrencies.
“Financial services are not really for cryptocurrencies,” co-founder and chief product officer George Davis told me.
BVNK is targeting native cryptocurrency companies and companies curious about cryptocurrencies, such as “paying companies that are under pressure to accept cryptocurrencies,” Davis said.
The bank is the key to winning new customers. You can use BVNK to replace some of your traditional bank accounts. From your BVNK account, you can buy, sell, send and receive Fiat currencies such as EUR, GBP and USD and cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH and USDC.
In addition, BVNK has set up a payment service. It is also a way to collect cryptocurrency payments and a cryptocurrency gateway for those who want to buy cryptocurrencies. Companies that use BVNK can use this API with their customers.
The entry of Fiat is especially interesting as BVNK wants to compete directly with MoonPay. If you are not familiar with MoonPay, it is a popular access API for other products. For example, many cryptocurrencies put MoonPay in their apps so that users can buy crypto assets with a debit card.
BVNK thinks it can create a cheaper alternative with open banking. Instead of relying on debit cards, BVNK asks people to log in with their bank account details and pay directly from there. In this way BVNK saves on card processing costs.
By now BVNK had attracted about 120 customers. “We were profitable as a company,” Hemson-Strutters told me. The company says it currently processes more than $2 billion in annual payments.
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
