Dorsey's Square goes in on $14 million for crypto settlement startup

By Jeff Benson

Transparent has gone from stealth to Series A.

Transparent Financial Systems, a cryptographic settlement solutions company for businesses, announced today that it had secured $14 million in Series A funding. 

Pantera Capital led the round. Square, the Jack Dorsey-founded mobile payment company, joined in, as did Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group. Additional funders included CMT Digital, Future\Perfect Ventures, and IDEO Colab Ventures.

Not much is yet known about Transparent. A blog post dated today, February 5, is titled "Hello World" and states that Transparent wants to help companies lower risks and costs related to USD settlements. It also indicates that it's been kicking around since 2018, when it split off from Vulcan Inc., the late Paul Allen's philanthropic organization. 

Little wonder then that the Seattle-based firm's seed financing, worth $8 million, came from Vulcan Capital, a for-profit impact investment wing interested in "clean" and sustainable investments. As part of the Series A deal, Pantera and Future\Perfect will take places alongside Vulcan on Transparent's board. 

However, all eyes are on Square, which may be positioned to not just profit off of Transparent's tech but also use it. Last year, it filled out its Square Crypto team with hires from Google, Facebook, and Lightning Labs. And if there were any doubts about its desire to get into Bitcoin, in January it won a patent for converting fiat payments into digital currency.

Mike Brock, in charge of Strategic Development for Square's Cash App, gave the standard endorsement of cryptocurrency's underlying technology in the press release: “Square believes that blockchain represents a path towards a more robust, safe, and empowering future for all participants in the economy—from individuals to businesses.”

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