Mike Cagney is building another company at the intersection of finance and technology. The SoFi co-founder announced Sunday that his latest venture, Navra, secured $19 million in a Series A round led by Ribbit Capital, with backing from Baseline, DCM, Jump Crypto and Figure Technology Solutions. The round was oversubscribed, though no valuation was disclosed.
This marks Cagney's return to fundraising headlines after launching Figure Technology Solutions, where he serves as co-founder alongside June Ou, who previously held the chief technology officer role at SoFi. Now the two have teamed up again on Navra, positioning it as a gateway for institutions seeking blockchain exposure without the technical and regulatory headaches that have plagued the space.
The pitch centers on what Navra calls "keyless self-custody" that purportedly meets qualified custody requirements. That matters in an industry where institutional clients remain wary of security breaches and regulatory ambiguity. The platform wraps blockchain access in enterprise-friendly features: an embedded AI agent, enterprise team management tools, and audit trails.
Navra provides a single intuitive interface to multiple blockchain venues, including on-chain yield protocols. The company has tied its platform to Figure's ecosystem, specifically the Democratized Prime lending marketplace and YLDS, which Figure describes as the first SEC-registered public security USD stablecoin. Additional integrations with Figure's trading markets are planned, with a limited rollout to retail and institutional clients tentatively scheduled for later this year, followed by white-label availability.
The fresh capital will fund AI infrastructure development, platform expansion, and customer acquisition. LinkedIn currently lists Navra's headcount at 2 to 10 employees, suggesting the company remains in early operational stages despite the substantial raise.
Ribbit Capital's involvement carries weight. The firm backed Coinbase before its public market debut and participated in Robinhood's emergency financing in 2021 during the meme stock frenzy. Both Baseline and DCM have history with Figure. Baseline lists Figure in its portfolio, while DCM has participated in Figure funding rounds stretching back to 2018, according to a 2021 DCM newsletter.
Cagney framed the opportunity in characteristically bullish terms. "Blockchain DeFi protocols are the best foundation for the $6 trillion asset based finance market," he said in the announcement. Whether that vision materializes remains an open question, but the competition is already established and well-capitalized.
Fireblocks, MetaMask Institutional, and Coinbase Prime have carved out significant positions in institutional blockchain access and custody. Ondo Finance recently reported surpassing $2.5 billion in total value locked across tokenized Treasuries and stocks. Maple Finance disclosed $4.8 billion in assets under management as of late September, according to company statements. The broader market for tokenized U.S. money-market and Treasury funds reached approximately $14.2 billion across 30 issuers as of mid-2024, per data from Allium. Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum claimed in the announcement that "Figure's ecosystem is putting more than $2B a month of real world assets on blockchain."
Navra's marketing materials tout yield ranges from 3% for treasury-backed tokens to over 20% for leveraged returns. These figures represent marketed projections rather than audited performance data, and prospective clients should approach such projections with appropriate caution given the volatility inherent in cryptocurrency markets.
One detail looms over Cagney's latest venture. According to reports from Axios, Fortune, and The New Yorker, he resigned from SoFi in September 2017 following workplace misconduct allegations. The episode has not prevented him from raising subsequent rounds for Figure and now Navra, but it remains part of his professional history as he seeks to win over institutional clients who typically conduct thorough due diligence on leadership.
For now, Navra is a startup with modest staffing, ambitious goals, and a well-connected founder navigating a crowded and rapidly evolving market. How it differentiates itself beyond its ties to Figure's ecosystem will likely determine whether it captures meaningful market share or becomes another footnote in the blockchain infrastructure race.
