Balderton, Animoca Brands back Request Finance in $5.5 million round

Crypto payments startup Request Finance has won the backing of venture capital firm Balderton Capital and gaming firm Animoca Brands in a $5.5 million seed round. 

The startup, which simplifies and automates invoicing, expenses and payroll for both centralized and decentralized companies, also attracted investor interest from VC XAnge and angel investors, such as Aave founder Stani Kulechov and Sebastian Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox.

Founder and CEO Christophe Lassuyt said that Request Finance sees itself as a "web3 Bill.com" — a crypto-native invoicing solution complete with on-chain payment confirmations and market-rate crypto exchange rates. 

"Bill.com helps customers pay hundreds of invoices in one click and that's what we do with Request Finance," said Lassuyt in an interview with The Block. "You can pay 100 invoices in 50 different currencies to 20 different countries in one click." 

The company claims to have processed over $200 million in invoices since launching in January 2021. Lassuyt said that it currently has over 2000 clients including The Sandbox, Polygon, MakerDAO, and Near Protocol. 

With the new funding, the company plans to hire more staff and boost marketing for the product. It hopes to tap into the networking benefits of having fintech VCs such as Balderton on its cap table, alongside crypto VCs such as Animoca Brands.