BVNK, a London-based startup focused on serving global businesses that operate across borders in crypto and fiat currencies, has raised $40 million in a Series A round led by Tiger Global.
Launched in October, BVNK wants to make the use of crypto financial services more accessible, helping its clients manage treasury, payment and investment operations for digital assets from a single account.
It is offering a business account which provides a ‘Know Your Business’ process for access to GBP/EUR/USD and digital asset wallets. Firms can manage settlement, exchange and payment from a single account interface.
This interface also hosts BVNK Yield, where clients can put their capital to work and earn interest; and BVNK Markets for large volume digital asset trades. The startup has also developed BVNK Insights, which provides market intelligence to help customers make informed decisions.
The new venture is led by Jesse Hemson-Struthers, formerly CEO at Coindirect, which offered cross-border foreign exchange, powered by digital assets, in emerging markets.
The investment - which included participation from 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 - will fuel BVNK's launch into new markets, including the USA, accelerate its acquisition of regulatory licences, and support the expansion of product capabilities.
BVNK is already processing over $2 billion in annualised payments volume and has more than doubled monthly payment volumes since January 2022.
Says Hemson-Struthers: “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.”