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London-based BaaS startup Fiat Republic secures $3.5M to bridge fiat and crypto world

Fiat Republic
Image credits: Fiat Republic

The crypto space continues to experience a boom! However, the crypto platforms are still struggling to access traditional banking services and are required to pay hefty risk premiums for assurances of compliance and security. 

Raised $3.5M

Based out of London, Fiat Republic is addressing the issue with its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) business model. 

Recently, the company has secured $3.5M funding in a seed round from Speedinvest, Seedcamp, and Credo. The UK startup will be using funds raised to add to its already strong 14-person team and to accelerate acquiring regulated status in the UK and the EU. 

Commenting on the opportunity as he sees it, fintech veteran, crypto enthusiast, and CEO of Fiat Republic, Adam Bialy, says, “The crypto industry as a whole is still in its infancy. We believe that by bringing crypto platforms into a single body under the Fiat Republic Consortium, we can increase our collective standing with regulators and enhance our leverage with big banks, who, until now, have dictated the terms of access to fiat-based on harsh internal risk policies, often conceived mainly out of fear of the unknown. By creating an API that facilitates seamless data exchange between both traditional and crypto players, we believe we can foster transparency and better understanding between both sides, which in the future will benefit the whole.”

Besides, the company also announced that Martyna Lewinska (CTO) and seasoned Banking-as-a-Service executive Sophie Guibaud (Chief Commercial & Growth Officer) join the founding team. 

“We are creating the Fiat Republic to make it easier for crypto platforms to focus on building the future. Challenges in exchanging fiat currencies have always existed in crypto – we saw an opportunity to build a developer-first API capable of removing the need to batch files and undertake lengthy integrations with multiple banking partners,” comments CTO Martyna Lewinska.

Bridging fiat and crypto world

Fiat Republic is building a compliance-first, e-money-regulated banking and payments API to reduce the time and cost of processing fiat currencies for crypto platforms. 

Fiat Republic says that this will give crypto platforms much-needed access to mainstream and local payments networks in Europe and beyond, all through a single API.

Fiat Republic Consortium 

Further, the company is creating a consortium of crypto platforms, the “members” of the Fiat Republic Consortium to promote responsible practices in the cryptocurrency industry as firms are facing increased levels of regulation with the 5th Money Laundering Directive and further regulation likely in the coming years.

The Fiat Republic Consortium aims to get strong representation with regulators to lead standard-setting for the asset class and change its perception among traditional financial institutions, says the company.

The company also begins its private beta as it builds a collective capable of negotiating with regulators and traditional banks. 

Investors

Speedinvest is an active early-stage investor with more than €600M AUM and 40 investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. 

“Crypto has clearly reached the point of no return, going far beyond early adopters and enthusiasts to the masses. Despite this shift, crypto companies are still unfairly cut off from traditional banking because the banks lack a unified compliant layer of connectivity which would decrease their risks of entry. With more and more crypto companies and DeFi applications emerging and mass adoption rates on the rise, the need for a compliant fiat connectivity layer is a must. The Fiat Republic team is pioneering this connectivity by merging their exceptionally deep knowledge of both worlds. We’re proud to be early supporters.” Commented Olga Shikhantsova, Principal at Speedinvest. 

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