Web3 Payments Company Bridge Successfully Secures Funding of $58 Million, Backed by Previous Staff Members from Coinbase and Square
Bridge Emerges from Stealth with $58 Million in Funding for Stablecoin Orchestration and Issuance
Bridge, a groundbreaking stablecoin Orchestration and Issuance platform, has recently emerged from stealth, backed by a significant $58 million in funding. The platform aims to revolutionize cross-border payments by reducing costs and offering a more accessible solution for unbanked users.
Founded by Zack Abrams, former head of product at Coinbase, and Sean Yu, a software engineer at Square, Bridge's team boasts extensive experience in the development, launch, and rollout of USDC, the first scaled, regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin in the US.
The platform offers several key benefits for businesses and unbanked users. Rapid Custom Stablecoin Issuance enables businesses to launch compliant digital dollar products faster and more efficiently, reducing the time to issue a custom stablecoin from over a year to just weeks.
Regulatory Compliance and Transparency are ensured through rigorous reserve management, managing regulatory licensing, and ongoing compliance monitoring. This guarantees that stablecoins like MetaMask USD ($mUSD) are fully backed 1:1 by high-quality liquid assets such as cash and U.S. Treasuries.
Composability and Interoperability are facilitated through the platform's support for on-chain minting and cross-chain functionality via integration with the M0 protocol. This enables stablecoins to be interoperable across multiple blockchains (e.g., Ethereum and Linea), expanding use cases in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, lending markets, and multi-chain applications.
Integration with wallets like MetaMask provides a seamless onboarding experience for users, including the unbanked, who can access stablecoins directly within widely used crypto wallets. This bridges traditional finance and web3 ecosystems for easier access to digital financial services.
Simplified Infrastructure for Businesses is another key advantage, as Bridge abstracts away blockchain complexity, gas management, key handling, and reserve infrastructure. This allows developers to provision blockchain wallets per end-user and manage payments efficiently, lowering operational barriers for fintechs and enterprises embedding stablecoins in their products.
Scalability and Security are ensured through partnerships with industry leaders like Fireblocks, automating global stablecoin payouts with secure custody, fast bulk processing, and scalable infrastructure.
For unbanked users, Bridge creates accessible, secure digital dollar options embedded directly into user-friendly crypto wallets, facilitating participation in the digital economy without requiring traditional bank accounts. Bridge's foreign exchange (FX) feature allows global companies to repatriate funds, and businesses with MXN can pay vendors in USD (and vice versa) using Bridge's stablecoin payment rails.
Transactions using Bridge's stablecoin payment rails settle in minutes and at a fraction of the cost vs. SWIFT. The platform also allows users to convert between various dollar formats, such as USD/EUR, USDC, PYUSD, USDT, etc. Developers can convert dollars into a stablecoin that they can customize on the platform.
Bridge's Orchestration and Issuance APIs enable any company or team to offer digital dollar-based services to their end consumers or businesses. The funding round was led by Sequoia, Ribbit, Index, and Haun Ventures, with Bridge already collaborating with leading organizations worldwide to introduce various use cases of its platform.
With its innovative approach to stablecoin Orchestration and Issuance, Bridge is well-positioned to address some of the world's biggest challenges related to money movement. The platform's partnership with LATAM-based crypto exchange platform Bitso will enable stablecoin-powered cross-border payments in the region. Bridge's founders, Abrams and Yu, started building the platform in April 2022, and the company has already made significant strides in its mission to revolutionize cross-border payments.
- The funding for Bridge's stablecoin Orchestration and Issuance platform, amounting to $58 million, is led by Sequoia, Ribbit, Index, and Haun Ventures, enabling the platform to collaborate with leading organizations worldwide and introduce various use cases.
- The platform, Bridge, aims to Facilitate stablecoin-powered cross-border payments in the LATAM region, thanks to its partnership with LATAM-based crypto exchange platform Bitso, which will help revolutionize cross-border payments.
- Developers can access simplified Infrastructure for Businesses through Bridge, as it abstracts away blockchain complexity, gas management, key handling, and reserve infrastructure, thus allowing for efficient management of payments in fintechs and enterprises that are embedding stablecoins in their products.
