Sequoia, Multicoin co-lead $6M funding for Solana-based crypto payments startup TipLink

TipLink, a crypto payments platform built on the Solana blockchain, raised $6 million in a seed funding round.

Sequoia Capital and Multicoin Capital co-led the round, with Solana Ventures, Circle Ventures, Paxos and others participating, TipLink said Tuesday. Angel investors, including Vinny Lingham and Sarah Guo, also backed the round.

This was an equity funding round, which began in April last year and closed in July, TipLink co-founder and CEO Ian Krotinsky told The Block in an interview. But the startup chose to announce now with the launch of its API, which allows developers to create TipLinks for free, said Krotinsky.

What is TipLink?

TipLink lets users send crypto, stablecoins and NFTs with a link. The sender has to connect to a Solana wallet and create a TipLink by depositing a token or NFT they want to send. They can then copy the TipLink URL and send it to anyone. The receiver doesn't have to have a crypto wallet. They can receive tokens even through a Gmail login, said Krotinsky. TipLink also supports QR codes.

With its newly launched API, TipLink lets developers and companies deposit digital assets and create TipLinks for their users. "That just opens up the market size for so many companies in magnitudes more than they currently have," said Krotinsky. "Their users don't need to download anything and are onboarded into crypto."

Daniel Chen, partner at Sequoia Capital, said in a statement that he believes TipLink can potentially onboard the first billion people into crypto. Thus far, TipLink has helped create and send "tens of thousands of links," according to Krotinsky.

TipLink plans to continue building link wallet functionality, improve its API, and expand engineering and business development teams. There are currently eight people working for TipLink, said Krotinsky. As for new features, Krotinsky said users should be able to deposit more money to link wallets and withdraw funds to a bank account in the near future.

TipLink wants to stay on Solana for the foreseeable future, but Krotinsky said other blockchains offering high throughput and low cost could be explored.