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 investor Balderton Capital, and XAnge.
The seed round also attracted 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.
The fresh round of capital will support the company’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.
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.”
Simplifying Enterprise Crypto Payments
Since launching in January 2021, a whopping $203 million in crypto invoices have been paid in the app. Today, Request Finance simplifies and automates invoicing, expenses, payroll, and accounting in crypto for more than 2,000 Web3 teams.
Sebastien Borget, Co-Founder and COO of metaverse giant, The Sandbox, who personally backed the company’s seed round, said: “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.”
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 stablecoins on 14 different chains.
By addressing the common challenges faced by companies using crypto, it has attracted large users from different Web3 verticals. Notable names include DeFi companies like Aave, metaverse projects like The Sandbox and Decentraland, as well as DAOs like Maker.
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.
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.”
What Winter?
Despite the cratering in crypto asset prices, and skepticism over the real-world adoption of cryptocurrencies, the company appears immune to the cold of the crypto winter.
According to the company’s published data for the month of May, the number of crypto invoices paid rose 81% month-on-month, bringing the total count to over 10,000 invoices paid to date. This represents about $10.5 million in crypto invoices paid last month alone, up 91%, or about $5 million more than the previous month.
And while larger crypto companies have recently been making the headlines for layoffs and canceled job offers, Request Finance is actively looking to grow its ranks. It is hiring for various roles including a Chief Finance Officer (CFO), software developers, as well as positions in business development and marketing.
The remote-first team currently comprises more than 20 blockchain engineers, UX designers, growth hackers, and support staff working from 12 different countries across Asia and Europe. This includes Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, the UK, Netherlands, France, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Mauritius, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia.
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