Blockchain tech company Squad Labs has raised $10 million in new funding.
The Series A round was led by Electric Capital with participation from RockawayX, Coinbase Ventures, L1D, Placeholder and Mert Mumtaz.
“As the onchain economy grows, so does the adoption of smart accounts and smart wallets across blockchains,” the company said in a Wednesday (June 12) news release announcing the funding. “These trends correlate because smart accounts unlock a more intuitive, secure and programmable way for users to interact with blockchain ecosystems.”
The company said it will use the funding to bring its Fuse smart wallet to market, and “make it the best place for securing and compounding personal digital wealth.”
Fuse, the release says, “abstracts away seed phrases, and offers wallet recovery and 2FA capabilities,” while also offering “enterprise-level security for personal custody and makes the choice of storing digital wealth on-chain an easy one.”
In addition to the funding round, Squad Labs also announced that it was opening Fuse for public testing on iOS.
Meanwhile, a recent PYMNTS Intelligence report examines the use of blockchain in improving cross-border payments.
“To use blockchain to enhance and optimize cross-border settlement, businesses can start by partnering with FinTechs to enable simplified cross-border payment processing and facilitate seamless digital-to-fiat currency conversion,” PYMNTS wrote recently.
Integrating stablecoins into a business’s payment system also gives cross-border customers a fast, dependable and cost-effective alternative to standard payment rails.
And business-friendly permissioned decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions can also help companies automate and secure their cross-border transactions via smart contracts. These solutions lessen reliance on traditional payment rails, accelerate payment cycles, and bolster transaction security and transparency.
Faulty cross-border payments cost American merchants at least $3.8 billion in sales just in the last year, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Cross-Border Sales and the Challenge of Failed Payments.”
“It is also crucial for firms to educate not just themselves but their business partners about the benefits of on-chain cross-border payments,” PYMNTS wrote. “Educating end-users empowers them to use these innovative payment solutions with confidence, fostering trust and facilitating smoother transactions.”
Lastly, communicating with banks and financial institutions about the interest in blockchain-based cross-border payments can also help to speed change in the industry.
“By highlighting the advantages these solutions would bring to businesses, advocacy can encourage more financial institutions to adopt and support blockchain as a next-generation cross-border payments technology,” wrote PYMNTS.
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