Request Finance Growing Despite ‘Crypto Winter,’ Raises $5M

It might be “winter” for the cryptocurrency industry, but crypto invoicing and payroll and expenses company Request Finance landed $5.5 million in seed funding amid a period of growth.

The seed round was led by institutional backers including Animoca Brands, FinTech venture capital firm Balderton Capital, and French venture fund Xange, according to a Wednesday (June 8) press release.

Other investors included a number of Web3 founders including Sebastien Borget, founder and CEO of The Sandbox; Michael Kong, CEO of Fantom; Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave; and Julien Bouteloup, founder of StakeDAO.

See also: Coinbase Tightens Head Count as Crypto Business Braces for More Fallout

“We’ve been looking for a robust solution to enable the crypto payments of hundreds of monthly invoices, salaries and various expenses generated through our activity,” Borget said in the press release. “Request Finance has been the go-to solution that delivered above our expectations and that scales as The Sandbox keeps expanding the open metaverse.”

Request says that as of last month, it had paid more than $200 million in crypto invoices across 10,000 invoices from more than 2,000 Web3 operations. Last month saw an 81% month-to-month increase in the number of crypto invoices, and 91% increase in the value of those invoices.

Despite the “crypto winter,” the company said, it is hiring for a number of roles, include a CFO, software developers, and business development and marketing positions.

The hiring comes at a time when many crypto firms are cutting jobs. As PYMNTS reported last week, the industry has seen wide-ranging job cuts this month: Gemini announced on June 2 that it was laying off 10% of its workforce, while Bitso the largest crypto exchange in Latin America, laid off more than 10% of its 700 workers.

Last week, Mercado Bitcoin, the largest crypto exchange in Brazil, cut 80 positions, while Argentinian exchange Buenbit let go 45% two days prior. Rain Financial cut dozens of its workers on June 2.