Visa, Circle, Ripple back $200M Velocity to link stablecoins with payment networks

Stablecoin payments startup Velocity raised another $10 million from investors including Visa (V), Circle (CRCL) and Ripple, extending a Series A that now totals $48 million as financial heavyweights push deeper into blockchain-based payments infrastructure.

Haun Ventures, Translink Capital and Mirana Ventures also participated in the extension, which follows a $38 million Series A announced in July.

The new investment valued the London-based firm at $200 million post-money, CEO Eric Queathem told CoinDesk in an interview. The original Series A round was oversubscribed, he said.

The funding comes as stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies tied to fiat money, are becoming a bigger part of global money movement. Once used primarily by crypto traders to shift dollars between exchanges, stablecoins have grown beyond $300 billion in circulation and are increasingly being used in payments, cross-border transfers and corporate treasury operations.

Velocity is going after the infrastructure behind those transactions. Its platform is designed to let payment companies and banks use stablecoins for settlement, liquidity and treasury operations without ripping out the systems they already use.

Payments plumbing

Queathem previously worked at Worldpay, which settles more than $2 trillion in annual payments volume. That experience helped shape the idea for Velocity. While consumer-facing payments have improved dramatically, much of the infrastructure moving money between issuers, card networks, acquirers and merchants remains cumbersome.