Crypto Visa card startup Rain raises $24.5 million from Norwest, Galaxy and Coinbase Ventures

Amid a broader trend of web3 firms attempting to make it easier for people to spend their crypto on everyday services, Visa card issuer Rain said Monday it had raised in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners.

Rain appears particularly interested in providing consumers with a way to spend stablecoins with limited friction, according to a social media post announcing the new funding. 

"As stablecoin adoption continues to grow — powering diverse use cases such as cross-border payments, remittances, and dollar-based savings — so too does the demand for frictionless spending of stablecoins in everyday transactions," the company said in its announcement. "Rain is prepared to meet that demand. After 15x revenue growth in just 12 months and payments now processed in 100+ countries."

While stablecoin supply and transfer volumes continue to grow, that also appears to be a renewed push to make it easier for crypto holders to spend their digital assets easily on everyday goods and services. Last year, stablecoin transfers surpassed the combined transaction volume of Visa and Mastercard. 

Earlier this month, the crypto payment platform RedotPay raised $40 million. Also this month, Mesh, the developer of a web3 payments system that streamlines transactions involving crypto assets and merchants' settlement requirements, raised $82 million.

"Powered by our Visa Principal Membership and our unique blockchain infrastructure, we’re accelerating the global rollout of stablecoin-enabled card issuance, unlocking faster, more efficient payments," Rain said on Monday.

Other investors in Rain's latest funding round included Galaxy Digital, CompoSecure, BDMI Fund, Coinbase Ventures, Lightspeed, Goldcrest, Thayer, and Hard Yaka.

In 2022, Rain raised $6 million in seed funding.