$10 million has been raised in seed funding for KAST, a financial technology platform based in Singapore and built on stable coins.
According to a statement released by KAST on Wednesday, HongShan Capital Group (HSG) and Peak XV Partners are leading the round.
The round also included several well-known angel investors, DST Global partners, and Goodwater Capital.
“For most countries and over half of global gross domestic product (GDP), banking does not match the openness and speed of the internet, it’s fundamentally broken,
“Stablecoins are the clear solution, but the user experience wasn’t great. We are building KAST to change this”, said Raagulan Pathy, KAST’s Co-Founder.
Previously serving as Circle’s Vice President for Asia Pacific and Chief Executive Officer for Singapore, Pathy is an expert in stable coins and is most known for USDC.
Working with partners like Bridge (which Stripe recently acquired), KAST provides payment cards, USD-denominated accounts, and the ability to send and receive cash to individuals in more than 150 countries.
Without having to deal with fiat directly, they will soon introduce savings and other remittance products.
Users can now send money more quickly, cheaply, and securely thanks to the swift integration with traditional finance networks brought about by the maturation of stable coin regulation and acceptance.
KAST emphasized use cases like allowing people to purchase imports and travel with a card, allowing remote workers worldwide to be paid, and holding USD stable coins as an alternative to volatile currencies.
“The next generation of neobanks will be built on stable coins and inherently global by DNA,
“They will differ fundamentally from the current generation of neobanks, which are limited in countries due to licensing, and struggle in integrating blockchain; their core systems and capabilities are just too different,” said Daniel Bertoli, Co-founder of KAST and former Partner at Quona Capital, a global FinTech fund that focuses on investments in neobanks.
KAST achieved a substantial undisclosed valuation after closing a $10 million seed round.
According to the founders, revenue and user growth in the first four months have exceeded even the highest expectations, demonstrating the nearly limitless pent-up demand worldwide.
With over $170 billion in supply and $8.5 trillion in transactions by over 125 million users in the second quarter of 2024, stable coins have seen impressive growth, according to KAST.
According to analysts, there will be more than 1 billion users and more than $1 trillion in supply by 2030.
“KAST delivers real benefits to global users. Their USD-denominated accounts provide a safe haven for hard-earned income when local currencies decline, especially for those without access to traditional US accounts,
“As more digital nomads receive salaries in stable coins, they can now bypass the hassle of legacy rails. International transfers that once took weeks can now be completed instantly and at virtually no cost,” said Alex Svanevik, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Nansen.ai, an early investor in KAST.
