Stablecoin infrastructure firm Trace Finance raises $32 million Series A, says valuation grew 10x from seed
Trace Finance, a stablecoin payments infrastructure firm, has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round as it looks to expand across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.
CoinFund led the round, with Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Paxos, Chainlink Labs, HOF Capital and others participating, Trace Finance said Wednesday. Angel investors, including Circle co-founder Sean Neville, Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi, and Itaú Unibanco (Latin America's largest bank) partner and vice chairman Ricardo Villela Marino, also joined the round.
Brazil-based Trace Finance began raising for the equity round at the end of last summer and closed it in December, co-founder and CEO Bernardo Brites told The Block. He added that Trace's valuation has grown about 10x since its 2022 seed round valuation, when it raised $4.3 million, though he declined to disclose a figure.
As part of the deal, CoinFund Partner Einar Braathen took a board seat at Trace Finance, Brites said.
The funding comes as investment activity around stablecoin infrastructure continues to grow, especially after the passage of the U.S. stablecoin legislation GENIUS Act in July last year and amid rising institutional adoption.
Deal activity has also increased. Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge for about $1.1 billion last year, while Mastercard has agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, subject to approvals. The deals highlight growing demand for infrastructure that connects stablecoins with traditional banking and payment systems.
Brites said Trace Finance offers regulated infrastructure, with the firm operating under licenses in the U.S. and Brazil, as well as through partner banks in Mexico, Colombia, Europe and Asia.
"We are going to pursue additional licenses in Singapore, the U.S. and APAC as part of our strategy going forward," Brites said. He added that the company plans to expand operations in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina before moving into Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.
Connecting the U.S. and Brazil served as the company's initial market, where it built infrastructure combining local banking rails, foreign exchange, compliance, and stablecoin settlement. Brazil recently classified cross-border virtual asset payment flows as foreign exchange operations, a move that, according to Trace Finance, will push institutional activity toward regulated bank-grade infrastructure providers.
"Stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments. Stablecoins plus regulated local bank infrastructure do," said Brites. "We built Trace bridging the U.S. to Brazil and are now extending that infrastructure across LatAm and other emerging markets."
Founded in 2021, Trace said it has processed more than $10 billion in institutional cross-border volume to date and is the main infrastructure provider for the top four global payment providers operating in Latin America, including dLocal. Brites declined to identify the other three partners because of contractual agreements.
Trace also has new settlement products in development, though Brites did not provide additional details.
The company has also grown its headcount from 25 employees at the start of the year to 48 today, Brites said.
Source: https://www.theblock.co/post/405104/trace-finance-funding-valuation-stablecoins-crypto
