KAST, the stablecoin firm founded by former Circle Vice President Raagulan Pathy, has fetched $80 million in its Series A funding round. Venture capital firms QED Investors and Left Lane Capital co-led the round, an official statement shared by KAST said on Monday.
Backed by stablecoins, KAST is a neo-bank like platform that provides on-ramp and off-ramp services for tokens like USDT and USDC in over 150 nations, it claims. With this funding, the valuation of this firm has climbed to an estimated $600 million.
“The latest funding, raised less than 18 months from launch, reflects the confidence of leading investors in the stablecoin thesis and in KAST’s ability to execute it at global scale,” said Pathy, commenting on the development.
The company, headquartered in Hong Kong, offers Visa card-friendly stablecoin payment solutions in supported markets to let users switch between digital assets and fiat currencies easily.
With the fresh funding, KAST announced it plans to start on its licensing work using the newly acquired funding. It also expressed the intent of expanding its teams in regions including North America, Latin America, and Middle East.
According to its announcement, it is roping-in talent from contemporaries like Stripe, Revolut, Circle, and Binance among others.
Peak XV Partners, HSG, and DST Global Partners joined QED Investors and Left Lane Capital in pouring capital into KAST in this round.
Representatives from the investor companies commented on thee development calling stablecoins the on-chain dollar ecosystem that is increasingly on the rise, which nudged them to work with Pathy’s company.
““Stablecoin technology holds the potential to reshape the future of finance. We are thrilled to lead this round at KAST,” said Nigel Morris, Co-founder and Managing Partner at QED Investors.