Paypal Ventures, the venture capital division of Paypal, revealed this week its investment in Mesh, a financial technology startup focused on advancing digital payments. The investment entity emphasized that the capital injection was primarily allocated using the firm’s newly introduced stablecoin, PYUSD.
Mesh Attracts Paypal Ventures Investment, PYUSD Leveraged
This week, Paypal Ventures disclosed its investment in Mesh, a digital currency and fintech startup previously known as Front Finance. Mesh positions itself as a business-centric financial platform, striving to seamlessly blend digital and conventional finance realms. At its core, the platform operates as a comprehensive account aggregation system that boasts 300 connections with various exchanges, wallets, and brokerages.
Mesh’s integrations encompass a wide range of platforms, including Coinbase, Binance, Etoro, Vanguard, Blockchain.com Wallet, Webull, Kraken, Bitcoin.com Wallet, Bitstamp, Kucoin, and several others. Paypal Ventures revealed that their investment in Mesh primarily utilized PYUSD, the firm’s stablecoin offering built on the Ethereum network. While Paypal did not specify the rationale behind using the stablecoin to enhance Mesh’s funding, it acknowledged the potential advantages of the startup’s technology for stablecoin assets.
“As the world of financial services undergoes rapid transformation, we believe that user ownership and portability of assets will become a critical building block of product innovation, with crypto serving as the first beachhead where this is possible,” remarked Amman Bhasin, a partner at Paypal Ventures. Bhasin added:
Mesh’s commitment to these principles, coupled with its innovative technology, makes them a clear leader in this dynamic landscape. We are confident that this investment will fuel Mesh’s growth and contribute significantly to the advancement of embedded finance and native stablecoins.
The Paypal Ventures investment follows Mesh’s Series A funding round, which saw the startup raise $22 million. The investment round was led by Money Forward Inc. and saw participation from Samsung Next, Galaxy, Streamlined Ventures, SNR.VC, Hike VC, Heitner Group, and Arash Ferdowsi, the Co-founder of Dropbox, among others. At the time, the co-founder and CEO of Mesh, Bam Azizi, said “Embedded finance is going to be a $7 trillion market opportunity.”
“We’re thrilled to have the backing of Paypal Ventures as we execute against our vision of becoming the connection layer for a critical mass of crypto platforms and financial service providers,” Azizi said on Monday. “Paypal has an incredible track record of moving the payments industry forward, so it’s no surprise they are at the forefront of stablecoin innovation and share our vision for the future of the industry.”
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