Velocity, a London-based startup building infrastructure to connect traditional corporate treasury systems with stablecoin payments, secured a $10 million Series A extension on September 15 from a roster of strategic investors that includes Visa Ventures, Circle Ventures and Ripple. The deal—which also drew participation from Haun Ventures, Translink Capital and Mirana Ventures—brings the company's total Series A haul to $48 million at a $200 million post-money valuation.
The extension follows an initial $38 million Series A round announced in mid-July, co-led by Dragonfly and FirstMark. Since then, the company has been assembling what its executives describe as a bridge between two worlds that rarely speak to each other: the aging but entrenched infrastructure of corporate banking and the always-on, borderless promise of blockchain-based stablecoins.
For Velocity, the timing reflects both opportunity and urgency. Stablecoins have matured from a niche crypto product into a genuine payment rail, with billions of dollars in daily volume moving through networks like Ethereum and Solana. Yet most CFOs still treat them as exotic instruments, held at arm's length from core treasury operations. Velocity's pitch is straightforward: you don't need to tear out your existing systems or hire a team of blockchain engineers. The company's API slots into whatever treasury management software or ERP platform a business already uses, letting finance teams move money in stablecoins as easily as they would initiate a wire transfer.
The platform eliminates some familiar pain points in cross-border payments. Transactions settle around the clock, not just during banking hours. There's no need to prefund accounts in multiple currencies or absorb the spread on foreign exchange conversions. Companies can hold both fiat and stablecoins on a single dashboard, with programmable payment features and yield options through third-party partners layered on top.
What's striking about the investor lineup is the presence of Visa, a legacy payments giant whose involvement signals more than passive interest in the space. "Stablecoins are playing an increasingly important role in the future of global commerce," said Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products & Strategic Partnerships at Visa, in a statement accompanying the announcement. That phrasing is careful, but the subtext isn't hard to read. Visa sees a threat, or an opportunity, or both.
The company has been busy on the partnership front. MVB Financial announced in early September that it would participate in a Visa Direct pilot using Velocity's infrastructure to enable stablecoin-funded push-to-card payouts. Two weeks later, issuer processor Thredd revealed it had integrated Velocity's settlement layer into its own platform. Velocity also lists membership in Mastercard's Crypto Partner Program on its LinkedIn page, though Mastercard has not publicly confirmed the relationship.
CEO Eric Queathem spent years at Worldpay, where he led corporate strategy and acquisitions before running the company's crypto and global payouts division. His CTO, Łukasz Anwajler, came over from Ramp Network, where he held the same title. The two have built a team of 46 employees as of late September, according to the company's LinkedIn page, with open roles in enterprise sales across the U.S. and Europe. Velocity operates out of an office on Broadwick Street in London and serves clients in the United States, parts of Europe and Australia.
Queathem framed the company's mission to CoinDesk as solving a back-end problem that others have ignored. Plenty of startups have built wallets or payment apps, he noted, but the settlement layer underneath remains clunky and fragmented. Velocity wants to own that infrastructure.
The company has not publicly disclosed specific customers, though it targets global merchants, payment processors, fintechs and financial institutions. It has achieved SOC 2 Type I attestation and lists ISO 27001 certification on its trust center, with a Type II audit in progress. Those credentials matter in an industry where security lapses can be fatal.
Velocity isn't operating in a vacuum. BVNK partnered with TransferMate earlier this year to offer stablecoin settlements. Modern Treasury launched payment-service-provider rails with stablecoin support. Ripple, one of Velocity's investors, has been pushing its own Treasury product and RLUSD stablecoin. The market is crowded, and the infrastructure layer doesn't have the same network-effect moats that consumer-facing platforms enjoy.
Still, Dragonfly General Partner Rob Hadick argued earlier this year that Velocity is "reimagining how critical payments and commerce are executed." The startup plans to deploy the new capital toward expanding its network of banking and payments partners, building out product features, pursuing licenses in additional jurisdictions and scaling its custody infrastructure.
Whether that vision materializes depends on a larger question: how quickly corporate finance teams are willing to rewire their operations around stablecoins. Velocity has made a bet that the technology is ready. Now it needs to convince the CFOs.
