Quick take:
- The fundraising was led by Solana Ventures and Rabbit Capital.
- Canonical Crypto and 6MV also joined the round with Chris Kalani, Bill Ready and Archie Purri joining as individual investors.
- The crypto on-ramp platform integrates bank accounts with decentralised apps.
Meso, a Web3 payments platform founded by former PayPal, Braintree and Venmo executives has launched with a $9.5 million seed round led by Solana Ventures and Rabbit Capital. The fundraising also attracted participation from Canonical Crypto and 6MV, with Phantom cofounder Chris Kalani, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready and Bodhi Labs’ Archie Purri joining as individual investors.
According to the announcement, Meso is building a crypto payments platform that connects bank accounts with decentralised applications. The company wants to make it easier for non-crypto native users to easily buy and sell cryptocurrencies using traditional methods.
“[Meso is] a crypto app, like a self-custodial wallet or a centralized exchange, can now build [seamlessly] for a user to load money in and out of their wallet,” Meso cofounder and CEO Ben Mills told Fortune.
The concept allows crypto applications to onboard new users without first sending them to a centralised exchange to fund their wallets. According to Mills, enabling a simpler way of onboarding new users to the crypto industry is needed for broader adoption.
“We have a solution that allows you to keep the user where they are, which is, frankly, just better for everyone,” Mills said.
One of the biggest challenges facing crypto applications is building sustainable user bases. The complexity involved in creating crypto wallets coupled with the process of exchanging different cryptocurrencies and moving them across different networks prevents non-crypto native users from interacting with decentralised finance (DeFi) apps frequently.
However, the Meso co-founders are using their experiences from PayPal and Venmo to address the problem by connecting Fintech/TradFi with the world of DeFi.
“Meso envisions a future where users aren’t required to use centralized exchanges to get started in crypto,” Mills said in a statement.
Meso has already partnered with a crypto-friendly regional bank and USDC stablecoin issuer Cross River Bank, which previously worked with Circle. The company will charge a modest fee of 1.5% for fund transfers between bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets, making the service more cost-effective for users.
Ribbit Capital’s Justin Saslaw said in a statement: “[Meso’s] work on seamless fiat-blockchain transactions is helping to create a ubiquitous payment platform, connecting disparate parts of the financial grid.”
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