Sphere, a stablecoin company that specializes in cross-border payments, just closed a $5 million funding round led by crypto giants Coinbase Ventures and Kraken Ventures.
Founders Arnold Lee and Luigi Charles founded Sphere in 2022 with the goal of creating a “Stripe for crypto.” Stripe is a popular cross-border payments company that deals in fiat currency. Sphere hopes to do the same, but have customers deal in stablecoins instead, a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to the value of the U.S. Dollar.
Sphere integrates with global fintech companies and licensed money transfer services in a way that allows businesses to transfer funds from one country to another using stablecoins. Once the stablecoins arrive at their destination, Sphere works with the local bank to ensure that the coins can be exchanged with local currency.
“The normal way that [people] would go through to send money to each other is very clunky, so we help streamline the funds, and the data flow between them and other regulated entities in different countries,” Lee tells Fortune.
Sphere has created its own application programming interface (API) which connects computers and allows them to route global payments. It also works directly with banks to settle transfers within 15 to 30 minutes while maintaining compliance with local laws, according to Lee.
Lee says he plans to use the latest funding round to invest further into regulatory compliance and risk management functions.
