Blockchange and Mastercard R&D accelerator co-lead $5 million fundraise for payment startup Kima

The payment firm Kima raised a total of $5 million of pre-seed funding through equity and token funding rounds, bringing the firm's total funding to $8 million. 

Blockchange, FinSec Innovation Lab, a research and development accelerator out of the payment giant Mastercard, and several angel investors led the equity round. Additional support from the token fundraise came from Outlier Ventures, Blockchange, Big Brain Holdings, Castrum Capital, Kangaroo Capital and Maven Capital, according to a release shared with The Block. 

Kima builds a web3, decentralized settlement protocol that connects traditional financial services, such as fiat bank accounts and credit cards, with decentralized finance (DeFi) tools. 

The firm plans to use the funds to onboard additional institutions, payment platforms and cross-chain decentralized apps, as well as to grow its research and development, finance arm and regulatory processes, the release said. 

"These funding rounds fuel our ongoing efforts to achieve what was once considered impossible — bridging the gaps between traditional systems and the blockchain space, on-chain," says Kima co-founder and CEO Eitan Katz in a statement. "They will enable us to enhance and expand our ecosystem, ushering in real inter-ecosystem interoperability for the first time."