Request Finance, a crypto payments startup, has raised funding worth $5.5 million in a seed round led by venture capital firm Balderton Capital and gaming firm Animoca Brands. VCs and angel investors, including Aave founder Stani Kulechov and Sebastian Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox, showed interest in the venture, which streamlines and automates invoicing costs and payroll for both centralized and decentralized businesses. Request Finance envisions itself as a "web3 Bill.com" — a crypto-native invoicing solution with on-chain payment confirmations and market-rate coin exchange rates, according to Founder and CEO Christophe Lassuyt.
New Funding Will Help Improve its in-App Features
Request Finance expects the new funding to help it improve its in-app features and expand its team to capture a larger portion of the booming crypto payments market. According to a blockchain data platform Chainalysis, the global volume of cryptocurrency transactions increased by 567 percent from 2020 to reach $15.8 trillion in 2021. Animoca Brands' executive chairman and co-founder, Yat Siu, said,
"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 Crypto Payments for Businesses
Since its inception in January 2021, the app has processed $203 million in bitcoin invoicing. For more than 2,000 Web3 teams, Request Finance streamlines and automates invoicing costs, payroll, and accounting in crypto. 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 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.
