Zero Hash Raises $105M to Bring Crypto Products to All Financial Companies
“Every company will be a crypto company in some form,” Edward Woodford, co-founder and CEO of ZeroHash told Blockworks in an interview
Edward Woodford, co-founder and CEO of Zero Hash. Source: Zero Hash
key takeaways
- Financial service companies are beginning to realize they can no longer ignore digital assets, Woodford said
- According to an SEC filing, Interactive Brokers CEO Milan Galik and Co-founder of thinkorswim and tastytrade Tom Sosnoff also participated in the round, but Woodford declined to comment on their participation
Zero Hash raised $105 million in a Series D funding round, a few months after its last fundraise in October, the company shared on Wednesday.
The company provides businesses the ability to embed crypto and NFT products and services into their own platforms so that customers can trade, reward, earn and stake digital assets.
“Every company will be a crypto company in some form,” Edward Woodford, co-founder and CEO of Zero Hash told Blockworks in an interview.
The company powers retail brokers, neo-banks and payment processors for companies like MoneyLion, Wirex, MoonPay and TradeZero. Additionally, Zero Hash gives back-end coverage and the regulatory licensing required to offer these services. “They’re coming to us for a number of different products, it really depends on what they offer customers,” he noted.
The company provides various types of licensing depending on the circumstances, Woodford noted. In the US, for example, Zero Hash has state-by-state licensing as a regulated money transmitter.
“A lot of companies are thinking about the big picture here,” Woodford said. “Things like the metaverse, Web3 and crypto [are] an inherent part of that strategy and that’s why large customer-facing businesses are now having to think about digital assets more and more,” he added.
New investors in this round include Steven Cohen’s Point72 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and NYCA. According to an SEC filing, Interactive Brokers CEO and President Milan Galik and Co-founder of thinkorswim and tastytrade Tom Sosnoff also participated in the round, but Woodford declined to comment on their participation.
In total, the B2B digital-asset-as-a-service infrastructure firm has raised $165 million. There is no valuation being disclosed at this time.
“[This Series D] is really about expanding our team geographically,” Woodford said. “We’re working with companies with a global client base so we have to be more global in terms of our regulation presence. European licensing, APAC licensing, LATAM licensing are now all very much on our roadmap,” he added.
Financial service companies are beginning to realize they can no longer ignore digital assets, Woodford said. “They have existing clients and they want crypto to be part of their portfolio,” he said. “So rather than the client going elsewhere and potentially losing that client, ultimately I think more traditional financial services are looking for interesting ways to integrate crypto,” he added.
Alternatively, Woodford thinks crypto-focused companies like Coinbase will build out more traditional financial services like banking and equity services.
These two worlds will compete with one another to keep clientele, he said.
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