Crypto payments startup Ramp cashes $ 53 million Series A round

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Polish cryptocurrency payments startup Ramp announced a $ 52.7 million Series A round, just months after the company closed its $ 9 million round. He builds on a 30-fold growth in transactions over the past year, as well as a tripling of his team in the past six months alone.

Rumors had circulated in recent months that Ramp’s impending raise would be around $ 30 million, suggesting the four-year-old startup was valued at around $ 300 million. The actual amount raised was almost double that estimate.

The round, the largest of its kind to come out of Poland, highlights the current hype around cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as well as the potential of platforms that can enable their greater adoption.

“We’re at the very start of a very exciting time for this space. I think 2022 is going to be crucial for the whole [crypto] space, and the main theme will be the actual use cases coming online, ”Szymon Sypniewicz, co-founder and CEO of Ramp, told Sifted. “We have been waiting for it for many, many years.

“I think 2022 is going to be crucial for all of [crypto] space, and the main theme will be the actual use cases coming online ”

Founded in Warsaw in 2017, Ramp offers a comprehensive, non-custodial payments infrastructure that aims to open up cryptocurrencies and digital assets to more businesses and users.

To date, cryptocurrencies have largely been the domain of enthusiasts and speculators, who flock to crypto exchanges like Coinbase and eToro to buy and sell digital assets. However, Sypniewicz sees this evolving rapidly, with Ramp allowing websites, apps, or services to integrate a payment infrastructure into their existing systems, without users needing to switch to other apps to purchase crypto assets. This is similar to what Stripe and others have done for the ecommerce space; in its last round of funding, Stripe was valued at $ 95 billion.

Ramp claims he can reduce ramp-up to hours, rather than the months it would take if a company were to implement their own ramp-up stack.

“We have increased in order to be able to further accelerate our development. Our first priority is to have more payment rails in the world, ”says Sypniewicz.

Ramp is now a partner of more than 400 developers worldwide, including Axie Infinity, Mozilla, Opera Browser and Dapper Labs, and is the exclusive ramp-up partner of Sorare, the blockchain-based fantasy soccer game that has raised a $ 680 million series. B round earlier this year at a valuation of $ 4.3 billion.

Sypniewicz highlights the growing opportunities to work with mainstream video game studios looking to add crypto components, as well as decentralized financial scalability solutions and now the rise of the metaverse.

“I think it has to be a process initiated by the big existing platforms,” he says. “We see Facebook offering crypto solutions, as well as many other tech giants taking an interest in them. It’s happening.

Last year, Ramp became the first crypto company to receive an open banking license in Europe, issued by the Polish Financial Supervisory Authority, and in July it received FCA approval in the UK, followed by regulatory approval from the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which allows it to operate legally in the United States.

Ramp’s latest funding round was led by Balderton Capital and included existing investors NFX, Galaxy Digital, Seedcamp and Firstminute Capital, as well as angels Taavet Hinrikus of Wise and Francesco Simoneschi of TrueLayer. It’s an impressive list of investors.

“Digital assets represent a unique moment in a decade when a new technology is emerging that will have a fundamental impact on our company and our culture,” said Rana Yared, general partner at Balderton Capital, who will join Ramp’s board of directors.

“Digital assets represent a unique moment in a decade when a new technology is emerging that will have a fundamental impact on our society and our culture”

Yared says Ramp is a key piece of the infrastructure to open up the world of digital assets to new audiences, enabling users to purchase digital assets directly in the app in a convenient and reliable manner, without the need for s ‘register for an exchange or set up a crypto wallet. “We believe Ramp is in the right place in the value chain: By enabling any crypto-enabled application to integrate mainstream users, it effectively bridges the gap between use cases that rely on cryptography and fiat currency. “

“Ramp is essential to allow access to NFTs for traditional and non-native crypto users,” she adds.

To date, Balderton Capital has only invested in a handful of other startups operating in the crypto space, including fintech giant Revolut, London-based cryptocurrency platform Luno, and the platform. Berlin-based form of digital assets Finoa. “What’s unifying about all of these investments is that they provide the infrastructure for investors and users of digital assets,” says Yared. “Ramp is part of our investments in companies specializing in open finance.”

Over the past year, Ramp has grown from around 20 employees to 80, and is expected to grow to nearly 300 by the end of 2022.

While most of the R&D and operations teams are in Poland, Sypniewicz says the company’s center of gravity is now shifting to London, along with senior management and business and compliance activities.

“Facebook’s announcement alone was just huge, because right now everyone is going to be trying to think about their own crypto strategy.”

Sypniewicz believes the hesitation around cryptocurrencies is fading away. “People don’t understand how money flows in fiat [government-issued currency] pipes either, ”he says. “I think it’s going to be very similar. Crypto will only remain fully understood by a niche; for most people, it’s just going to be part of the apps they use every day.

“Businesses are on the move and are looking for partners to bridge the gap,” he adds. “I think the Facebook announcement alone was just huge, because right now everyone is going to be trying to think about their own crypto strategy: ‘Why aren’t we working on it? “”

Kit Gillet is Sifted’s correspondent for Eastern Europe. He tweets from @KitGillet

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