PayPal, Visa lead $300 million investment in Blockchain Capital

The funds will be used to partner industry professionals to help grow business and protocols and make focused investments in blockchain infra, DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and emerging blockchain technology (Representative Image)

PayPal and Visa, on June 22, led a $300 million fundraising in Blockchain Capital, a cryptocurrency venture capital (VC) company. Further, the two payments giants and a few other investors will participate in the company’s strategic partnership programme.

The company’s fifth funding round, dubbed ‘Fund V’, was oversubscribed at its $300 million hard limit, Blockworks reported.

The funds will be used to partner industry professionals to help grow business and protocols and make focused investments in blockchain infra, DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and emerging blockchain technology, the report said.

Blockchain Capital did not respond to queries, as per the report.

Jose Fernandez da Ponte, VP and GM of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies at PayPal told the publisher the company is “committed to fostering an ecosystem” for digital currencies and to make them “more accessible, secure and useful”.

He added: “this investment allows us to engage with the entrepreneurs driving the future of the decentralised economy and the new wave of financial services.”

Notably, PayPal’s investment comes after CEO Dan Schulman in February said the company will “launch international crypto offerings” and will “significantly invest” in its new crypto, blockchain and digital currencies unit.

Vasant Prabhu, CFO at Visa said they are “focused on enhancing all forms of money movement, whether on the Visa network, or beyond” and that this investment will “deepen” efforts to “shape and support the role that digital currencies play in the future”.

Visa has progressively invested in digital assets – working with Anchorage and Crypto.com over the past months and years, the report noted.

Blockchain Capital is a multi-stage investor in companies, assets and protocols across the crypto ecosystem. Since 2013, It has invested in 110 companies including Anchorage, Coinbase, Kraken and OpenSea.