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Stablecoins have made it exceptionally easy to move money across borders instantaneously. The problem that remains for users, especially those in emerging markets, is getting those funds to their preferred local payment methods. Texas-based global payments infrastructure company Latitude aims to change this by giving businesses the infrastructure to use stablecoins to send local currency through familiar methods, such as bank accounts and mobile wallets.
Cofounded by industry veterans Cyril Mathew, Brian Wrightson, and Vivek Morzaria—their collective resumés include stops at well-known names like Stripe, Uber, Coinbase and Meta—Latitude announced Wednesday that it raised $35 million in a Series A round. Oak HC/FT, a venture and growth equity firm, led the round, with participation from NEA, Coinbase, Lightspeed Faction, and OpenFX. The Series A follows Latitude’s $8 million seed round. Mathew, the startup’s CEO, did not disclose the company’s valuation in an interview with Fortune.
“There’s a number of neobanks that are trying to build financial services apps for users across the world. Those end users need ways to get in and out of stablecoins. That neobank can try to do that in 80 countries, or they can plug into Latitude,” Mathew said.
Besides neobanks, Latitude serves businesses including payroll platforms, marketplaces, and financial firms that need to move money across borders. It aims to expand beyond the U.S. by obtaining its own regulatory licenses in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, where many stablecoin companies have yet to establish a presence.
The payout problem
Mathew’s passion for cross-border payments began during his decade in Europe, where he led international payments at Uber. The experience that stuck with him was a conversation he had with an Uber driver in London who was trying to remit his wages to Morocco. When Mathew asked how he did it, the driver said he handed a bag of cash to a middleman and that, after a 20% cut, the money would arrive in Morocco.
Later, when Mathew joined Stripe, his team launched stablecoin payouts in 100 countries, but adoption was limited. Users in markets including Vietnam and countries across Africa said they needed money they could spend locally, not stablecoins. Many also balked at downloading crypto wallets and managing seed phrases. He realized stablecoins would have limited use unless recipients could easily convert them into local currency in bank accounts or digital wallets.
In late 2024, while taking a short break from the industry to figure out his next move, Mathew pitched the idea of Latitude to Wrightson, who was still working at Stripe. He then did the same with Morzaria. By January 2025, the three had begun raising Latitude’s seed round.
Today, the company has a 15-person team, with shared office spaces in New York, San Francisco, and London.
Latitude plans to use the latest funding to hire in compliance, engineering, legal, and sales. It also intends to maintain its licenses across 45 U.S. markets and pursue direct licensing globally.
“When you talk to these large enterprises, they want to work with players that are regulated in the U.S. because it provides a level of certainty and trust,” Oivind Lorentzen, a partner at Oak HC/FT, told Fortune. “That’s really important when you’re moving money.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
