Request Finance, the Web3 enterprise crypto payments startup, has closed a $5.5 million seed round with institutional backers including Animoca Brands, Europe’s leading early-stage venture capital (VC’s) investor Balderton Capital, and XAnge.
Additionally, Industry Sources added that the firm’s seed round also fascinated a star-studded lineup of Web3 founders including, Sebastien Borget Co-Founder and COO at The Sandbox, Michael Kong, CEO of Fantom, and Stani Kulechov, Founder and CEO of Aave, and Julien Bouteloup, Founder of StakeDAO.
Request Finance added that the fresh round of capital will aid in the firm’s efforts to expand its in-app services, and grow its team to capture a greater share of the growing crypto payments space. According to a report from blockchain data platform Chainalysis, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions globally grew to $15.8 trillion in 2021, up 567% from 2020.
Christophe Lassuyt, CEO and Co-Founder of Request Finance, stated: “We are encouraged by the overwhelming interest that we have received from our early adopters. Compliance-friendly companies choose Request Finance to document their crypto transactions, and love the experience.”
Yat Siu, the executive chairman and Co-Founder of Animoca Brands, commented: “The services provided by Request Finance allow Web3 projects – including some Animoca Brands companies – to save time and effort on crypto payments. We believe the company has a significant potential for growth and expansion.”
Noting the startup’s popularity among large metaverse projects, Yat Siu commented: “The opportunities that lie in powering payments for the open metaverse have attracted a number of large, traditional payment companies. But crypto-native solutions like Request Finance play a critical role in addressing the needs of Web3 enterprises and their communities.”
Maxime Le Dantec, Principal at Balderton Capital, stated: “The popularity of cryptocurrencies poses serious challenges to CFOs and their teams. Bank accounts are increasingly replaced by wallets, financial institutions now compete with decentralized lending protocols, and legacy payment networks are being replaced by blockchains. The traditional enterprise finance software stack made of tools like Melio payments or Bill.com is less relevant than a crypto-native tool like Request Finance.”
Andrew Nutter, an angel investor who backed the company’s seed round stated: “As an early investor in Revolut, I am excited to see how Request Finance is building the next layer in the stack by helping companies easily and securely adopt crypto payments.”
Sebastien Borget, Co-Founder and COO of metaverse giant, The Sandbox, who personally backed the company’s seed round, stated: “We’ve been looking for a robust solution to enable crypto payments for the hundreds of invoices; salaries and various expenses generated through our activity each month. Request Finance has been the go-to solution that delivered above our expectations and that scales as The Sandbox keeps expanding the open metaverse.”
Michael Kong, CEO of the Fantom Foundation stated: “Request Finance has been key in providing crypto payments and invoicing services for the Fantom ecosystem. Their intuitive and efficient payment infrastructure has proven essential for freelancers and their clients in an era of remote work.”
Alexis du Peloux, Principal, at XAnge, commented: “After backing Ledger, Coinhouse, and Dogami we’re backing a Web3 company that is set to become an essential part of tooling for Web3 businesses like DAOs, DeFi platforms, metaverse companies, and more.”
Since its inception in January 2021, a whopping $203 million in crypto invoices have been paid in the app. Recently, Request Finance simplifies and automates invoicing, expenses, payroll, and accounting in crypto for more than 2,000 Web3 teams.
It all started with a simple idea: give businesses a better way to pay, and be paid in crypto.
The founders saw serious problems that had to be solved before more businesses would start using crypto. For one, making crypto payments by copying and pasting wallet addresses from a spreadsheet is both laborious and frightfully vulnerable to human error. On top of that, keeping proper financial records of crypto transactions was also an accountant’s nightmare.
To address these pain points, the team built a suite of enterprise-friendly features like on-chain payment confirmations, automated billing and payments in crypto, and even integrations with accounting software like Xero. The self-custodial platform currently supports over 150 tokens and stable coins on 14 different chains. Industry sources added further that there have been numerous macroeconomic trends are behind Request Finance’s rapid growth. For one, the rise of remote work in the wake of the global pandemic, and the mushrooming of remote-first Web3 companies and DAOs have been a boon to the company.
Request Finance sources explained that with growing calls for crypto payments to be regulated under existing tax and anti-money laundering laws, Request Finance also offers enterprises an easy way to document critical information about their crypto payments which are typically required by the authorities.