Offline mapping app Maps.me raises $50m led by Alameda Research to enter DeFi

Maps.me, an offline mapping app that boasts 140 million users worldwide, has raised $50 million in a funding round led by Alameda Research in an effort to build a decentralized finance ecosystem inside the map app.

Other investors including Genesis Capital and CMS Holdings also participated in the round, according to an announcement from Alameda on Monday.

The goal is to launch an embedded multi-currency wallet inside Maps.me, which provides travel guides and map services as well as allows users to participate in yield-earning finance and to win cashback via transactions through the wallet. 

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“By embedding and democratizing access to yield-earning finance to millions of users via an everyday app, Maps.me has the potential to really propel DeFi mainstream adoption and bring a groundbreaking technology to the masses,” said Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of Alameda Research and also crypto exchange FTX.

"We’re excited to be working with our partners to create a DeFi ecosystem on a platform that has already achieved scale in terms of its number of users, and which will expand services that are closely linked to financial needs,”Maps.Me's co-founder Alex Grebnev said in the statement.

According to the release, over 58% of the Maps.me users come from the European continent and over 70% between the ages of 18-40. 

UPDATE: After the publication of this article, Maps.me clarified the fundraise was not a seed round financing

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Wolfie joined The Block’s news team in 2020 and switched to the research side in 2021 to focus on crypto mining analysis. Prior to The Block, he had been a journalist at CoinDesk for three years. Wolfie has a background in financial journalism.