Union Square Ventures leads round to help bring low-cost, instant money transfers to the world
Sling Money, an app designed to make the global transfer of money instant, easy and low-cost, announced a $15 million Series A round led by Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Slow Ventures. Sling Money previously raised a $5 million seed round led by Ribbit Capital with participation from Slow Ventures. Sling Money combines stablecoin technology with a user-friendly interface and seamless integration with fiat payment systems to enable a better, faster, and cheaper way of moving money globally.
“Sling’s vision aligns perfectly with our belief that building on payments infrastructure on the blockchain can fundamentally expand access, lower cost, and open new opportunities for users. We’re thrilled to support the team as they do this.”
With Sling Money, users can easily send money instantly across 50+ countries across Europe and Africa to other users, between their own accounts, or even to non-Sling users with a Sling Link. A user can transfer money from Paris to Nairobi in seconds, then on to Bucharest, Stockholm, and Amsterdam, for free. Each transaction takes only seconds. Traditionally, transfers like these cost the sender a percentage of each transaction and are settled over hours or even multiple days. With Sling Money, transfers happen instantly and there are little or no fees.
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“We believe that money should work the same way everything else on the internet works – that it should be easy to use, it should be fast, and it should be global,” said Mike Hudack, co-founder and CEO of Avian Labs, Sling Money’s parent company. “The evolution of stablecoins and real-time payments systems around the world makes this possible. This capability has existed for a while now, but it’s been hidden behind complicated, user-confounding interfaces. Our goal is to fix that.”
Transfers on Sling Money are performed using Pax Dollar (USDP), which is a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company. USDP – and its reserves – are subject to strict regulatory oversight by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Transfers performed with Sling using USDP are instant and cost only a fraction of a penny. The Sling app seamlessly converts between fiat currency and USDP and back again in 50+ countries, with more countries continuously added.
“Sling Money represents a fundamental shift in the global payments landscape, offering a platform for effortless, instant transactions,” said Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures. “Sling’s vision aligns perfectly with our belief that building on payments infrastructure on the blockchain can fundamentally expand access, lower cost, and open new opportunities for users. We’re thrilled to support the team as they do this.”
The Sling Money team has extensive experience building and growing high-quality consumer internet products, including in regulated environments, at companies such as Facebook, Spotify, Square, CashApp and Monzo Bank.
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