Orbital – a London, Tallinn and Gibraltar-based traditional finance and crypto payments platform for global enterprises – recently announced it has raised £5 million ($6.4 million) in an oversubscribed growth round led by Golden Record Ventures at an attractive valuation in which the founders are maintaining a large majority. The participants in the round include New Form Capital, GSRV, Psalion and Luminous Futures.
This funding round marks Orbital’s first institutional capital raise, having been bootstrapped and profitable since being founded in London in 2017. And Orbital provides a range of traditional payment and global FX solutions, but where it deviates from the norm is that it also offers licensed crypto payment services, especially focusing on the business use cases for stablecoins in cross border payments.
The company combines fiat and crypto business accounts to enable traditional, global enterprises, especially those with exposure to emerging markets, to integrate stablecoins, and other major cryptocurrencies and traditional currencies, into existing payment flows. Its APIs further act as an embedded finance solution for stablecoin payments.
For example, companies are able to accept cryptocurrency payments from customers, off-ramp into traditional currencies like USD, GBP, and EUR, and settle into IBAN accounts in minutes. Customers can instantly access new markets, without the need for a physical presence or domestic bank accounts, and if they so choose, there’s no need to handle cryptocurrencies themselves.
The company is licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority as an authorized payment institution in the UK, and as a virtual currency service provider in Estonia, with other licenses to be announced in the coming months.
Orbital’s first institutional capital raise comes ahead of it raising a Series A round. Despite the current crypto bear market – off the back of its seven-digit monthly revenue has grown over 40% in the last six months. The company has over 80 clients processing $250 million of value monthly. Orbital’s headcount is 95 globally, with three offices across London, Estonia, Gibraltar. This funding round will enable Orbital to continue its rapid growth, secure additional licenses in new jurisdictions, and further develop its product.
Orbital’s industry-first product bridges the gap between traditional finance and digital asset treasury solutions, offering multinational corporates a regulated, secure, and frictionless experience. And it acts as a single point of access to various tools needed to run a treasury operation, including multi-currency accounts, foreign exchange, global payments, and digital asset custody. Orbital also offers its crypto payment rails via API, allowing online merchants to embed crypto payment into their own product or service.
KEY QUOTES:
“We believe all modern, global companies will require access to both blockchain and fiat payment rails, from one single platform, to effectively manage their business in the future. Orbital has been built by veterans who deeply understand the needs of large enterprises, which until now have been massively underserved. Our combined expertise in both traditional finance and crypto means that we are uniquely positioned to serve their demands. Bootstrapped and profitable since 2017, we’ve both grown rapidly and raised financing in a very difficult crypto bear market. Now we’re ready to scale even further and push our platform towards the bleeding edge of fintech.”
— Luke Wingfield-Digby, co-founder and Head of Corporate Development of Orbital
“The Orbital team has developed a best-in-class, licensed technology platform that caters specifically to large corporates and enterprises. Up until now these have been underserved, meaning there is a distinct lack of competition, and a huge opportunity for Orbital to fill that gap. The global business community is starting to understand the value and importance of stablecoins and digital assets, and we are delighted to back Orbital which is at the forefront of enabling this change.”
— Jad Benabdelkhalek, General Partner at Golden Record Ventures
