As more and more fintech companies use crypto, they face one big challenge: blockchains are public. This creates a risk that customers’ sensitive financial data, like their salaries, or how much they pay for rent, could inadvertently be made public. That’s a problem that a startup called Seismic is aiming to solve.
On Wednesday, Seismic announced that it raised $10 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Polychain, Amber Group, TrueBridge, dao5, and LayerZero. In total, the startup has now raised a total of $17 million. Lyron Co Ting Keh, the founder and CEO of Seismic, did not disclose his company’s valuation in an interview with Fortune.
Co Ting Keh explained that he named his startup Seismic for two reasons. First, it aims to be boots on the ground and intimately know the needs of its customers, which Co Ting Keh said is critical in crypto, a very technical field where it can be easy to lose sight of the user. Second, Seismic means huge, which is ultimately what the company wants to be.
“We know we’re extremely grounded,” said Co Ting Keh. “And we hope to be extremely valuable.”
As part of its mission to help fintechs protect customer data, Seismic partners with a fintech company called Brookwell, which provides customers with stablecoin accounts–where their money is not stored in a bank. When customers make transactions on Brookwell, the payment goes over Seismic’s private blockchain rails, which ensures data is not leaked or displayed publicly.
Co Ting Keh said that his company also works with Cred, which is a private credit service. He also mentioned they work with an unnamed business to transfer money internationally at a cheaper rate than traditional rails.
With the newly raised capital, the company plans to expand its offerings, like on-and-off ramping from fiat into crypto and card programs. As of now, the company does not have any revenue but expects to by Q1 of next year by charging one cent per transaction.
