When a company wants to pay its employees in different countries using stablecoins, it encounters a roadblock: many countries use different stablecoin service providers: there is Yellow Card in South Africa, Onmeta in India, and so on. Pankaj Bengani, a veteran of payment giant Block, founded Meld in part to fix this issue. He is building a network called Meld that aims to be a one-stop shop for companies and individuals to access and convert digital assets globally.
The startup announced on Wednesday that it raised $7 million dollars in a funding round led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from F-Prime, Yolo Investments, and Scytale Digital, which brings their total capital raised to $15 million. Bengani, the founder and CEO of Meld, did not disclose his company’s valuation in an interview with Fortune.
“It’s very fragmented—there are so many blockchains, there are so many stablecoins, there are so many payment methods,” Bengani said. “It’s ripe for one company to make it easier, and that’s what we want to do.”
When companies and individuals connect to the Meld network, they can buy or settle stablecoins, Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other type of digital asset around the world. The network launched in 2024 and partners with over 50 providers—like Yellow Card and Onmeta—in more than 180 countries, working in over 150 fiat currencies, the company says. People can use the network for remittances and global payroll, among other use cases. In the same way Visa partners with banks around the world for the last mile of transactions, Meld aims to partner with global crypto providers.
