Crypto payments startup MoonPay raises $555 million, reaching a $3.4 billion valuation

MoonPay, a payment infrastructure provider for crypto companies, said Monday it has raised $555 million in an all-equity Series A round led by Coatue and Tiger Global that values the firm at $3.4 billion. The funds will be used to hire people, expand geographic coverage and add more payment methods such as letting users buy cryptocurrencies via conventional payment methods like credit cards.

On Monday, the firm announced that it closed a $555 million Series A funding round led by prominent industry investors like American investment firm Tiger Global and tech-focused investment manager Coatue. Other participants included Blossom Capital, Thrive Capital, Paradigm, and the New Enterprise Associates venture capital firm.

The company plans to hire 200 people — more than doubling its current staff of 130, Bloomberg reported, citing MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright. The jobs, including customer support and compliance roles, will be based in the Miami headquarters as well as around the world, Bloomberg said.

“As we enter 2022, our aim is to continue this exceptional growth so that we remain the leading company powering the crypto economy,” the company wrote in its press release.

The raised capital is the first funding secured by MoonPay since the company was founded in 2019 by two young entrepreneurs, Ivan Soto-Wright and Victor Faramond. The firm says it has processed more than $2 billion in transactions and reached a customer base of over 7 million users.

MoonPay’s payment infrastructure lets people exchange traditional fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies for each other using all primary payment methods, including debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. In common, the platform supports more than 90 cryptocurrencies and over 30 fiat currencies.

“We set out to democratize access to the crypto economy by providing the tools for businesses to onboard new users with magical product experiences,” Soto-Wright said in the press release. “We are on a mission to help billions of people access trillions of dollars of digital value over the next decade and beyond.”

Apart from offering classic crypto services, MoonPay also provides a native nonfungible token (NFT) solution that allows users to buy and sell NFTs. Last week, rapper Post Malone promoted MoonPay in a music video with The Weeknd by buying two Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for a combined 160 ETH via the exchange.

MoonPay handles the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) checks to verify a customer’s identity, partnering with vendors worldwide to ensure compliance with local regulations. MoonPay also shoulders the time and financial costs of potential chargebacks or fraudulent crypto transactions.

Soto-Wright started his career on the institutional side of finance before leaving to find an automated savings business later sold. He then teamed up with MoonPay co-founder Victor Faramond to address the limited functionality of crypto wallets at the time. The efforts attracted the attention of Bitcoin.com, which wanted to make it easier for customers to buy bitcoin, and the first MoonPay integration was born in 2019. A checkout widget followed, which has become the flagship product.