Crypto Payments Startup Merge Pulls $9.5M in Seed Funding

Merge, a Web3.0 payments infrastructure service provider has raised the sum of $9.5 million in seed funding from investors as it seeks to bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3 companies.

As announced by the startup, the seed round was led by Octopus Ventures and included Hashed, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and Ethereal Ventures. Additionally, angel investors including some of the biggest names in both crypto and traditional finance participated including the founder of Aave, Stani Kulechov, co-founder of Polygon, CEO of Ledger, and former CEO of Barclays Consumer Banking, amongst other prominent investors.

Despite the growth that the blockchain and Web3.0 ecosystem is charting, there is a wider disconnection with the traditional financial world with regard to payments. While blockchain firms access traditional banking with higher than normal fees when they are available at all, they generally deal with compliance issues across the board.

“As the crypto economy moves further into the mainstream, it’s increasingly clear that the current financial infrastructure isn’t fit to serve the rapid expansion of crypto-native businesses and many providers aren’t specialised enough to gauge risk,” said Zihao Xu, investor at Octopus Ventures, “Merge’s vision is to build the infrastructure necessary to allow crypto businesses to operate without fear of shutdown by regulators or third-party risk teams. We’re excited to back them as they build that and, ultimately, unleash even more innovation in crypto and defi.”

Merge is making all of the payment challenges associated with the go-away with its easy-to-integrate API. Through the API, Merge provides crypto and web3 companies with a range of banking and payments solutions enabling them to instantly create bank accounts, send payments and seamlessly convert funds between fiat and crypto. These solutions also include licensing, and compliance amongst others.

Merge Benefitting From Experienced Team

Merge was founded by industry veterans led by Kebbie Sebastian, a former PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Barclays PLC (LON: BARC) executive. Working alongside Luno and Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) alumni, Kebbie has designed a protocol that occupies a pivotal point in driving the sustainable e-commerce capabilities of the emerging Web3 world.

Investors backed the firm in part thanks to the fact that they recognize the experience the team behind the project brings to the table, and how essential the solution being introduced is.

“Exponential growth of crypto startups evidently led to a dramatic increase in CeFi and DeFi assets under management, giving us strong confidence in Merge as the infrastructure provider to those institutions. Institutional players will naturally seek a reliable compliance infrastructure, and Merge is the only one-stop solution that is specifically catering to their needs,” said Baek Kyoum Kim, partner at Hashed.

The funding of Merge further complements the projection that investors are betting heavily on infrastructure providers in the crypto space. This is seen as a viable alternative when compared with the extreme price volatility from direct crypto investments.