Ripple Raises USD 200M From Tetragon, SBI Holdings & Route 66 Ventures

Ripple, a San Francisco-based blockchain startup focusing on the payments technologies, announced that it raised USD 200 million in Series C funding from a group of notable investors.

The funding round was led by global investment firm Tetragon, with participation from Ripple-friendly SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures, the announcement says.

This investment, says the company, marks a record year for the business, but also additionally proves both the value of blockchain in improving global payments and the broader utility of the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger. It will hasten the onboarding of new global talent to meet market demands and better serve the community, and it also supports Ripple’s vision for the Internet of Value (IoV), says the announcement.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that he expects Ripple’s customer base to grow 30%-40% and transaction volume on the company’s network to increase more than 600% in 2020, Fortune reports. Garlinghouse claims that there’s a high level of investor interest in Ripple, and that even though the company did not need the money, the funds provide “balance sheet flexibility,” says the article. He added that Ripple will have more announcements and will disclose more numbers in early 2020.

“We are in a strong financial position to execute against our vision,” said Garlinghouse in today’s announcement. “As others in the blockchain space have slowed their growth or even shut down, we have accelerated our momentum and industry leadership throughout 2019.”

Talking to Fortune, Garlinghouse declined to disclose details of Ripple’s revenues or operating profitability, but said the company is adhering to its core strategy of promoting the adoption of XRP. While Ripple earns money from licensing its money transfer software, its priority is XRP, since widespread adoption of the cryptocurrency would boost its price—and allow the company to profit from selling its reserves.

As previously reported, Ripple has seen its client base grow 50% this year, while some 7% use XRP for cross-border liquidity. They claim to have over 300 customers in over 45 countries. The company announced its upcoming payment corridor expansion to Brazil, while for 2020 it also plans additional corridors across APAC (Asia-Pacific Countries), EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), and LATAM (Latin America). In October, Garlinghouse said that the company has more than USD 305 million in cash in the bank and owns some USD 15 billion worth of XRP.

At pixel time (12:26 PM UTC), XRP is trading at c. USD 0.19. It’s up 3% in the past day and down 11.04% in a week.