Conduit, a leading cross-border payments platform powered by stablecoins, announced it closed a $36 million Series A funding round. This funding round was co-led by Dragonfly and Altos Ventures, with participation from Sound Ventures, Commerce Ventures, DCG, Circle Ventures (the issuer of the USDC stablecoin), and existing investors Helios Digital Ventures and Portage Ventures.
How the payment network works: Conduit’s cross-border payment network seamlessly integrates stablecoins, USD, and local currencies, providing businesses with a faster, cheaper, and more reliable alternative to the legacy SWIFT system. Already connected to multiple local banks across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, Conduit will use the capital to fuel expansion into additional markets and support an even broader range of traditional and digital currencies through its real-time payment rails.
This funding round follows Conduit’s exceptional growth, with transaction volumes increasing 16 times through its platform between 2023 and 2024. So far, Conduit has saved clients over 60,000 hours in settlement times and generated fee savings worth over $55 million. And the platform bridges crypto-native infrastructure with traditional finance, offering nearly instant, programmable global transactions with integrated AML, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring.
Conduit’s platform enables nearly instant global transfers across multiple payment rails, such as USD-denominated payment networks (SWIFT, ACH, FedWire) and local payment systems throughout Europe, the UK, and countries such as China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, and Kenya, among others. Businesses in these regions often face restricted access to USD, lack of SWIFT connectivity, limited interoperability between stablecoins and fiat currencies, slow settlement times, high fees, and complex regulatory requirements. Even though stablecoins can have a significant impact on how businesses can manage their treasuries, most market participants still expect invoices to be settled in fiat currencies, creating a need for seamless interoperability between fiat and digital currencies. Conduit enables clients in those jurisdictions to seamlessly transition between stablecoins and local currencies in real-time, facilitating more efficient settlement of commercial invoices.
Clients work with Conduit for:
1.) Speed – Unlike payment platforms that rely on slow and disjointed networks of correspondent banks, Conduit has direct partnerships with over two dozen banks worldwide, enabling transactions to settle in seconds rather than days.
2.) Broader Geographic Coverage – Conduit natively supports a diverse range of currencies and payment methods, including highly inflationary local currencies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
3.) Deeper Liquidity – Conduit’s network of institutional-grade FX providers ensures large transactions can be processed seamlessly without liquidity constraints.
How the funding will be used: Launched in 2021, Conduit currently has 57 employees and serves over 100 clients, experiencing a 105% year-over-year growth in clients. And the company plans to expand its product offering into Asia, strengthen its footprint in Mexico, as well as in other geographies.
New board member: Dragonfly Capital’s Rob Hadick will join the Conduit board.
KEY QUOTES:
“This fresh capital injection will enable us to accelerate our mission to build the next generation global payments infrastructure, to promote fairer economic opportunities across the world. Traditional cross-border payment systems do not meet the demands of modern businesses. Conduit’s platform seamlessly bridges the gap between traditional banking and stablecoin technology, offering unparalleled speed, affordability, transparency, and reliability.”
Kirill Gertman, Conduit CEO
“We’re thrilled to lead this investment round and support Kirill and his team as they reimagine how money moves across borders. With billions of annual transaction volume already flowing through Conduit’s platform, it has proven there’s a better way to move money globally and that stablecoins are the future of cross-border payments. What impressed us most was not just their innovative technology, but their remarkable traction and clear product-market fit. By addressing the real pain points businesses face with international transactions, particularly in emerging markets, Conduit has positioned itself as a critical infrastructure provider for the global economy.”
Dragonfly Capital’s Rob Hadick
