Founded in 2013, Boston-based fintech firm Circle Internet Financial is reportedly looking to raise $250 million in order to further expand its operations and product offerings.
According to a report published on March 2 by The Information, Circle’s fundraising round will consist of equity and debt financing. To date, Circle has managed to raise approximately $246 million from several prominent investment firms including giant Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, the Digital Currency Group, and Pantera Capital.
In its most recent Series E fundraiser, Circle was able to acquire $110 million in investment from a diverse group of investors at a valuation of almost $3 billion. Circle’s decision to seek additional funding before its initial public offering (IPO) may be part of the company’s business strategy to gain a larger market share on San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase and other competing crypto-related firms.
At present, Circle’s management operates a number of subsidiaries including Circle Invest, Circle Trade, and digital asset exchange Poloniex which was acquired in 2018.
In early January 2019, Circle revealed that it facilitated the trade of approximately $24 billion in cryptocurrency through its over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. According to an official blog post published by Circle’s founders, Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire, the company helped process more than 10,000 OTC trades “across 36 different cryptoassets” with “nearly 600 distinct counterparties.”
Circle’s Founders Anticipating Further Incremental Growth This Year
As explained in Circle’s blog, the payments technology firm offers liquidity to large cryptoasset exchanges, cryptocurrency miners, and blockchain project developers. The crypto-focused personal finance firm also provides liquidity services to the “new cryptoasset investor base of venture capitalists, crypto funds, hedge funds, and family offices” across the globe.
Explaining the American fintech firm’s business strategy and overall approach to the crypto sector, Circle’s blog post mentioned:
This year, we anticipate further incremental growth in institutional adoption catalyzed by stablecoin usage, advancements in institutional custody solutions, increasing regulatory clarity particularly in the [United States], and improvements and innovation in core crypto infrastructure.
Fighting Market Manipulation, Seeing Crypto As “Transformative”
On January 23, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland:
We see crypto as much more transformative even [when compared to the world wide] web. It will have a far greater impact on our civic institutions, our economic institutions, and on the nature of the firm itself.
As CryptoGlobe reported recently, Circle is also planning to fight crypto market manipulation tactics including insider trading and “pump and dump” schemes through advanced market surveillance tools. The payments technology firm reportedly intends to use digital financial services firm Nice Actimize’s tools to help prevent exploitative activities in the volatile crypto market.
