Blockchain-based payments firm Ripple has raised $ 200 million in a Series-C round led by Tetragon

By Dorothy 12/21/19 9:17 AM

With the investment supposedly surpassing the company’s record year, Ripple claims that it has notched a $ 200 million funding for Series C. The investment also continues to demonstrate blockchain value in enhancing global payments as well as XRP’s and XRP Ledger’s wider utility, according to a post from the company.

Payment company Ripple said it raised $ 200 million in Series C led by Tetragon. SBI Holdings, which Ripple has a joint venture SBI Ripple Asia, also participates. And the third investor is Route 66, the venture capital firm that led the Series A round of Clearmatics, the developer behind Utility Settlement Coin, the company announced on December 20.

The announcement states that this new funding will help Ripple continue to improve its global payment network and the wider utility of XRP and XRP Ledger digital assets.

Commenting on Series C, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated: “We are in a strong financial position to perform against our vision. When others in the blockchain space have been slowing down their growth or even decommissioning, we’ve accelerated the momentum and industry lead throughout 2019”.

Ripple has invested $ 50 million in MoneyGram

The payment company used the announcement to give a summary of its performance in 2019. They include a 10-fold growth in transactions and a number of customers for the Ripple Network reaching 300. Additionally, Xpring launched itself as a developer platform providing tools to allow third-party vendors to use Interledger’s Ripple technology and XRP currency. And early in the year, Ripple invested in payment company Moneygram.

Reports appeared in November that Ripple had invested $ 50 million in MoneyGram. The deal was finalized and also announced by both companies at the end of November and Ripple made the final payment for the deal with $ 20 million in equity at $ 4.10 per share per US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to SEC records, Ripple currently owns nearly 10% of the common stock of MoneyGram, and about 15% on a fully diluted basis, including non-voting warrants held by Ripple.

MoneyGram said it will use the funds to create and develop an on-demand payment system, using XRP digital currency. MoneyGram has been using XRP for transactions in many countries around the globe.

Ripple XRP sales fell 73% in the third quarter

According to the third quarterly report released on October 18, Ripple previously announced plans to sell XRP tokens more slowly in the third quarter.

In its last financial report, Ripple said its total XRP sales for the third quarter of 2019 were worth $ 66.24 million, up from $ 251.51 million in the previous quarter.

Ripple will go to court next month, defending its movement to dismiss a lawsuit claiming its XRP sales are an unregistered security release. Earlier this month, Ripple moved to have the case dismissed. They say that, along with other arguments, even if XRP is a security, investor plaintiffs have taken their case too late to proceed.