Rain, which issues credit cards that let customers settle payments in stablecoins, has raised $24.5 million in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, the company announced on Monday.
Also participating in the investment were Galaxy Ventures, Goldcrest, Thayer, and Hard Yaka. Rain’s valuation in the round was not disclosed.
Rain is a principal member of Visa, one of the world’s largest payment companies, meaning Rain can issue credit cards in partnership with Visa that allow consumers and businesses to make purchases with stablecoins and other crypto.
Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, told Coins2Day that because international businesses rely heavily on making payments in U.S. Dollars, his company wants to expand customer access to stablecoins—a type of cryptocurrency that fluctuates in line with the dollar. Rain partners with businesses in the U.S and Latin America to issue cards and plans to continue expanding globally.
“A lot of companies now have a global workforce and lots of people have been getting paid in dollars across borders for the last decade or so,” he said. “Stablecoins allow us, and our infrastructure allows us, to actually provide digital dollar services to people globally.”
The company recently announced a partnership with the Avalanche Foundation, the non-profit behind the Avalanche blockchain and its native AVAX token, to launch a Visa card that lets customers make payments using their AVAX tokens and stablecoins like USDC and USDT at any store that accepts Visa.
“You have assets…they can be in USDC or Avalanche tokens and you get seamless access to spending capacity,” Malik said.
Rain receives a percentage of the fee that Visa charges merchants to take payments on the Visa card network. Rain also charges a subscription fee that corporate customers pay to introduce card programs and get access to the company’s platform.
Rain processes transactions in over 100 countries, the company says. However, Malik declined to disclose specific usage metrics and the company’s annual revenue.
The idea of crypto cards is not new. Crypto exchange Coinbase offers customers a Visa debit card that lets holders spend crypto—including stablecoins—and fiat-currencies directly from their Coinbase balance. Another crypto exchange, Gemini, offers its customers a credit card that doesn’t let holders make payments in crypto but rather provides crypto as a reward for spending a certain amount in dollars.
Rain will use the money raised in this round to expand its team, develop new technologies, and apply for additional regulatory licenses.
The company previously raised $6 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners in 2022 to launch corporate credit cards for decentralized autonomous organizations like Uniswap.
