PayPal Ventures Makes Stablecoin Investment in Mesh

PayPal Ventures invested in Mesh, an embedded finance platform for cryptocurrency transfers and payments.

The funding was made almost entirely with PayPal USD and marks the first time PayPal Ventures has used PayPal’s in-house stablecoin for an investment, according to a Monday (Jan. 29) press release. (No dollar amounts were given).

Founded in 2020, Mesh helps businesses integrate crypto transfers and payments directly into their platforms, saving users from having to switch between platforms.

“As the world of financial services undergoes rapid transformation, we believe that user ownership and portability of assets will become a critical building block of product innovation, with crypto serving as the first beachhead where this is possible,” Amman Bhasin, partner at PayPal Ventures, said in the release. “Mesh’s commitment to these principles, coupled with its innovative technology, makes it a clear leader in this dynamic landscape.”

The new fundraise follows a Series A round in September during which Mesh raised $22 million.

“We are witnessing a massive shift in which consumers are demanding complete and transparent control over their assets and expecting the financial services that they use to give them that control,” Mesh CEO and Co-founder Bam Azizi said at the time. “Embedded finance is going to be a $7 trillion market opportunity. Mesh is at the forefront of this transformation for both sides of the marketplace — well-positioned to play a pivotal role in making every digital transaction embedded, secure and compliant.”

Meanwhile, the PYMNTS Intelligence study “The Embedded Finance Ecosystem: Software Publishing Edition” examined the evolving role of embedded finance in the software producers and publishers space.

Luke Latham, general manager of Australia and New Zealand at Airwallex, told PYMNTS in an interview last month that marketplaces are well-equipped to integrate financial services and products into their user experience thanks to their close relationships with customers.

“If you think about an eCommerce marketplace interested in providing credit or loans to their customers, they already have visibility of all the payment flows, … which positions them to play a leading role in the next phase of the evolution of embedded finance,” Latham said at the time.