Paypal’s cryptocurrency partner Paxos has raised $142 million in Series C funding led by Declaration Partners, an investment adviser to the family office of Carlyle Group billionaire David Rubenstein, - Forbes reports.
The round closed on November 24 and also includes investments from PayPal Ventures PYPL +2.3% and Paxos’ previous investors RRE Ventures and Liberty City Ventures. In total, the firm has raised $240 million in venture funding, making it one of the highest funded firms in crypto, after Circle, which has raised $271 million. The firm declined to disclose how much the investment valued the company.
New York City-based Paxos was founded in 2012 under the name itBit. It was among the first bitcoin startups to operate as a regulated trust company, offering custody services for U.S. customers under New York banking law. In October, payment giant Paypal launched a cryptocurrency trading service in partnership with Paxos, letting customers buy and spend bitcoin.
“Our pipeline has expanded very significantly from having been in the millions of customers maybe a year ago to, now, billions of customers through partnerships,” says Paxos’ CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla. “That is partly why we need to raise this capital, to really take advantage of the growth opportunities.”
