Cryptocurrency payment network Mesh achieved unicorn status with a $75 million Series C round, valuing it at $1 billion.
Mesh said on Tuesday that the round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment and Liberty City Ventures.
The funding, coupled with the ceremonial significance of Mesh achieving unicorn status, shows that even amid a relative downturn in spot markets, investors are still putting money into infrastructure to help realize the promise of cryptocurrencies as a tool to improve the way global finance works.
Mesh says its goal is to connect the decentralized world of crypto payments while bypassing slow settlements and higher fees in traditional finance (TradFi). It does this by being asset agnostic, allowing consumers to pay using any asset they hold and allowing merchants to receive instant settlement in their preferred stablecoin.
“Fragmentation creates real friction in the customer payment experience,” Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi said in a statement. “We are now focused on building the necessary infrastructure to connect wallets, blockchains and assets so that they can function as a unified network.”
Mesh said some of the funds were settled using stablecoins to prove the infrastructure was “ready for high-risk, real-world use.”