Ramp, a crypto fintech has raised $52.7 million in a just-concluded Series A round led by Balderton Capital. The round also saw the participation of existing investors NFX, Galaxy Digital, Seedcamp and Firstminute Capital. Angel investors Francesco Simonesci of TrueLayer and Taavet Hinrikus of Wise also participated in the round. The round which will see Balderton’s General Partner, Rana Yared, join Ramp’s board, brings the total amount raised by the fintech to $63 million.
Szymon Sypneiwicz and Przemek Kowalczyk founded Ramp in 2017. The startup operates a non-custodial, full-stack payment infrastructure and is opening up digital assets to more businesses and users by enabling them to send and receive cryptocurrency without having to use an exchange platform. Ramp achieves this with its software development kit which allows anyone who wants to offer crypto-enabled services to do so. This way, there is no need to set up an on-ramping stack to an exchange, thereby saving time that this is characterized by.
This system saves users a lot of time and the stress of one verification to another. It is also of benefit to Ramp as it means users are moving from one Ramp-powered service to another. In part because of this ease of use, it’s managed to partner up with more than 400 developers, including Mozilla, Browser, Dapper Labs, and DeFi apps like Aave, Argent, Trust Wallet, and Zerion. It is also the exclusive on-ramping partner for Sorare, the blockchain-based, global sports video game, and Flow, the blockchain which specializes in NFT marketplaces and digital assets.
Cryptocurrency is unlocking new doors for businesses and in the words of Ramp’s co-founder and CEO Szymon Sypniewicz “There is so much potential in unlocking cryptocurrency and digital assets beyond today’s narrow and restrictive use cases. We’re on a mission to provide instant access to cryptocurrencies through a provider they can trust”.
The startup has also received regulatory approval from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and this means access to legally operate in the US. It also became the first on-ramping company to receive an open banking license from the Poland Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) in 2020 in Poland.
On competition with other rivals, a Ramp spokesperson said that “While several competitors prefer to embed some of their fees in conversion rates, Ramp prides itself on showing its fees up-front so that consumers know exactly what they are paying for”.
Ramp’s biggest goal is to facilitate crypto transactions for banks’ or other financial institutions’ end-users within their banking apps; bringing TradFi to meet DeFi.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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