Author: Nancy, PANews
As the stablecoin market continues to expand, it is also welcoming more new competitive variables. On August 30, Bridge, a stablecoin payment company founded by former Coinbase and Square employees, announced that it had raised $58 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and other investors. What is the reason behind Bridge's large financing? How does this latecomer gain a foothold?
Stablecoin API for developers with compliance
Bridge is considered the Web3 version of Stripe. According to the official website, Bridge is a stablecoin-based payment platform that aims to help innovate global capital flows and challenge traditional payment systems such as Swift and credit cards.
"If there is only one stablecoin on a single blockchain, then there is no need for Bridge to exist. The value of Bridge lies in allowing developers to seamlessly convert between fiat currency and stablecoins and flow between different blockchains," said Chris Ahn, partner at Haun Ventures, in an interview with Fortune.
Simply put, Bridge is a stablecoin API for developers. According to the official website, Bridge provides services such as cross-border payments and foreign currency exchange. Users can use Bridge's Orchestration APIs to achieve seamless conversion between fiat currency and stablecoins. Bridge can provide US dollar and euro accounts for consumers around the world, and supports the transfer of USD, EUR, USDC, USDT or any other stablecoin on blockchains such as Ethereum, Base, Solana, etc. Bridge will invest its reserve funds in U.S. Treasury bonds with an annual yield of more than 5%. According to the official website, the entire fund transfer process takes only a few minutes and costs only a few cents.
At the same time, compliance is a competitive focus for stablecoins. Bridge has obtained licenses in 48 states and holds a VASP license from Poland. It is currently applying for further licenses in New York and Europe.
Since its launch 18 months ago, Bridge has processed more than $5 billion in annual payments and has expanded its application scenarios through cooperation with multiple parties. For example, Bridge has cooperated with Bitso to carry out stablecoin-based B2B cross-border payments in Latin America, with costs far lower than SWIFT; Bridge has cooperated with Chipper Cash, one of the largest fintech companies in Africa, and Dolar App to provide African and Latin American consumers with the ability to save and spend in US dollars, etc.; Bridge has cooperated with crypto companies such as Stellar and Strike to provide infrastructure for its stablecoin payment function, and has teamed up with Coinbase to help users transfer between Tether on Tron and USDC on Base. Other cooperative clients include Elon Musk's SpaceX, which Bridge helps to collect payments in different currencies in different jurisdictions.
Received $58 million in financing, team members have top financial technology experience
Compared with other stablecoin ecosystem companies that have received more support from crypto-native VCs, Bridge has also received support from top VCs in Silicon Valley. According to official disclosures, Bridge has currently received $58 million in investment from Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, Haun Ventures, 1confirmation and BEDROCK, including $40 million in financing led by Sequoia Capital and Ribbit.
The background of Bridge’s team is also an important reason behind the capital’s favor. An investor said in an interview with Fortune that “Bridge stands out from other crypto-native companies because its founders have experience in financial technology, having worked in startups including Brex and Square.”
Left: Zach Abrams Right: Sean Yu
According to LinkedIn profile, Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams was formerly the head of consumer products at Coinbase, where he led the development, release and promotion of USDC. He also served as chief product officer at US corporate payment unicorn Brex. The P2P payment company Evenly he founded was also acquired by mobile payment unicorn Square, where he became general manager of the latter's Square Customers business unit.
Co-founder Sean Yu has worked as a senior engineer at Coinbase and Airbnb, and has also been a co-founder of Evenly and a software engineer at Square.
BD Ben O'Neill was previously the vice president of business development and operations at Messari, and has also worked at companies such as Deutsche Bank, Uber and Satis Group.