Sling Money, an app built to make the global transfer of money easier and low-cost, announced a $15 million Series A round led by Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Slow Ventures. Sling Money had previously raised a $5 million seed round led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Slow Ventures.
The company combines stablecoin technology with a user-friendly interface and seamless integration with fiat payment systems to enable a faster and cheaper way of moving money globally.
Through Sling Money, users can easily send money instantly across 50+ countries across Europe and Africa to other users, between their own accounts, or even to non-Sling users with a Sling Link. A user can transfer money from Paris to Nairobi in seconds, then on to Bucharest, Stockholm, and Amsterdam for free. Every transaction takes only seconds. Transfers like these generally cost the sender a percentage of each transaction and are settled over hours or multiple days. With Sling Money, transfers happen instantly and have little to no fees.
Transfers on Sling Money are performed using Pax Dollar (USDP), which is a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company. And USDP – and its reserves – are subject to strict regulatory oversight by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The transfers performed with Sling using USDP are instant and cost only a fraction of a penny. The Sling app seamlessly converts between fiat currency and USDP and back again in 50+ countries, with more countries continuously added.
The Sling Money team has experience building and growing high-quality consumer internet products, including in regulated environments, at companies such as Facebook, Spotify, Square, Cash App and Monzo Bank. And the Sling Money app currently has a waitlist but is available on the iOS and Google Play app stores for download in countries where Sling is currently available.
KEY QUOTES:
“We believe that money should work the same way everything else on the internet works – that it should be easy to use, it should be fast, and it should be global. The evolution of stablecoins and real-time payments systems around the world makes this possible. This capability has existed for a while now, but it’s been hidden behind complicated, user-confounding interfaces. Our goal is to fix that.”
- Mike Hudack, co-founder and CEO of Avian Labs, Sling Money’s parent company
“Sling Money represents a fundamental shift in the global payments landscape, offering a platform for effortless, instant transactions. Sling’s vision aligns perfectly with our belief that building on payments infrastructure on the blockchain can fundamentally expand access, lower cost, and open new opportunities for users. We’re thrilled to support the team as they do this.”
- Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures
