Crypto powered banking platform to expand into US via £3.3m funding round

BVNK, the crypto-powered payments and banking platform for businesses, has secured $40m (approx. £32.8m) in Series-A funding to drive growth as it brings traditional finance and crypto together.

The investment will fuel BVNK’s launch into new markets, including the USA, accelerate its acquisition of regulatory licences, and support the expansion of product capabilities.

A statement issued by BVNK explains: “While traditional payments running on legacy infrastructure suffer from excessive fees and slow processing times, the attributes of cryptocurrencies, digitally-native, offering almost-instant transactions and requiring fewer intermediaries, provide a foundation for more efficient financial services.”

BVNK has leveraged these capabilities to build infrastructure that powers online, treasury, and cross-border payments for both crypto and fiat currencies.

Today, BVNK processes over $2bn (approx. £1.6bn) in annualised payments volume and has more than doubled monthly payment volumes since January 2022. The platform is focused on serving global businesses that operate across borders in crypto and fiat currencies with “ultra-fast, compliant and secure payments and banking”.

The fundraising round was led by Tiger Global alongside other notable investors including The Raba Partnership, Avenir, Kingsway Capital, Nordstar, Concentric, and Base Capital. Angel investors included the founders of Anchorage Digital, Coinlist, Eco.com and TrueLayer; Microsoft’s ex-head of strategy and former Stripe and Jump Trading executives.

BVNK co-founder and CEO, Jesse Hemson-Struthers, said: “We are excited to partner with Tiger Global given their in-depth understanding of the global crypto, payments and banking landscape and with them having backed key crypto infrastructure companies, such as NEAR protocol and TRM, and payments companies Stripe and Revolut.”

“Mainstream adoption of crypto is skyrocketing. As more transactions are carried out in cryptocurrency, there is growing demand among businesses for a banking platform that can accept crypto payments, settle crypto assets and bridge seamlessly between fiat and crypto economies.

“BVNK launched to address this demand and plug a gap in the market. The demand for crypto payment services has far exceeded even what we were expecting, and this Series-A funding will enable us to expand our services, markets and operations.”