XLD Finance, a borderless decentralised ecosystem that provides financial tools to emerging economies, announced Wednesday that it has successfully raised $13 million during the pre-Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Capital and Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC).

The round saw participation from Advance AI, Circle, Digital Currency Group (DCG), IDG Capital, Insignia Venture Partners, Integra Partners, Morningstar Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Sfermion, Shima Capital, Transcend Fund, TrustToken (TUSD), UOB Venture Management, Woo Network, Yield Guild Games (YGG), YOLO Ventures, Emfarsis and twenty other investors, XLD Finance said in a statement.

The funds will be used to enable XLD Finance to scale its product and engineering teams to accelerate its API and product development efforts, and to expand its network of licensed partner financial institutions, as well as its merchant and biller network.

“People in emerging economies often encounter barriers that prevent them from creating financial accounts, paying for goods and services without their physical presence, sending money to loved ones at a low cost, accessing affordable credit, and building a savings portfolio, all of which prevent them from experiencing a better quality of life. I want to see a future where anyone with a mobile phone or computer and internet access can use “bank-like” financial tools via their preferred DeFi protocol or exchange,” said XLD Finance Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ian Estrada.

Established in June 2021, XLD Finance is building infrastructure to enable the delivery of financial tools to emerging economies through APIs that bridge web 3.0 and traditional finance. Its goal is to modernize the delivery and infrastructure of financial services to provide all users with simple and dependable financial tools built on decentralized technology.

Its core products include crypto-based payments, disbursements, and crypto-to-fiat offramp APIs which allows web3 and crypto projects to offer tools to their users typically available only to traditional financial institutions.

With a merchant network of over 10,000 and growing, XLD Finance currently serves customers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh.

It launched its first ecosystem project, xSpend, in January 2022, allowing users to spend their GameFi tokens and stablecoins to pay utility bills, buy mobile credits, and purchase goods and services using only their Metamask, Phantom, or Ronin wallet. xSpend was introduced to the Malaysian market in June 2022 after debuting in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh.

This month, XLD Finance is launching OmniX, a crypto disbursement platform that simplifies crypto disbursements allowing guilds and projects to pay thousands of people with crypto in three clicks. XLD Finance’s roadmap includes a crypto settlement API for merchants, an algorithmic stablecoin, and a web3 wallet Software Development Kit (SDK).

“We believe in XLD’s vision of providing infrastructure for financial inclusion in emerging markets. There is an opportunity to solve the very real global challenge of financial access with less complexity through blockchain and decentralisation; XLD’s blockchain-based products will become as relevant as more traditional options,” said Brian Lu, Founding Partner of IVC.

IVC was founded to empower and invest in pioneering GameFi, DeFi and Web3 startups. The fund’s partners have invested in crypto assets since 2015 and have guided companies through a rapidly-evolving landscape.

Since August 2021, IVC has over 150 portfolio investments, and has made numerous strategic investments into a diverse range of startups including Yield Guild Games (YGG) and the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin, JPYC.

It is supported by Animoca Brands, Digital Currency Group, Circle, SEGA, and more. IVC aims to innovate, build, and catapult forward the next generation of founders.

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