London-based cryptocurrency payments company Merge has received a $9.5 million seed round of funding led by Octopus Ventures, as well as Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Hashed.
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- Other investors include the founders of Aave, Polygon, the CEO of Ledger and the former CEO of Barclays Consumer Banking.
- Merge plans to use the capital to ensure cryptocurrency companies can make payments and work with traditional financial services more efficiently.
- "As the crypto economy moves further into the mainstream, it is becoming increasingly clear that the current financial infrastructure is not suited to serve the rapid expansion of crypto companies, and many providers are not specialized enough to assess the risk," said Zihao Xu, investor at Octopus Ventures.
- Merge will not only focus on holding and transferring fiat funds for crypto and Web 3 companies, but also manage regulatory compliance through its API.
- The company told CoinDesk that it already has several customers and an announcement is expected this quarter.
- Despite the recent market decline, venture capitalists continue to invest in the cryptocurrency industry, with Andreessen Horowitz raising $4.5 billion for a new crypto fund on Wednesday.
- "We see it as a temporary rash," Merge co-founder Kebbie Sebastian told CoinDesk of the current market. "The fundamental potential of cryptocurrencies remains the same despite the market volatility."