Lightning Startup Zap Raised $3.5M for Bitcoin App Ahead of Visa Deal
Zap founder Jack Mallers speaks at the 2019 Lightning Conference in Berlin. (Will Foxley/CoinDesk archives)
Lightning startup Zap Inc., maker of both the namesake, non-custodial bitcoin wallet and the payments app Strike, raised its first round in April, led by Green Oaks Capital and including veteran bitcoin investor Anthony Pompliano.
The funding was first reported by Forbes on Wednesday.
- Founder Jack Mallers’ previously bootstrapped startup is now the latest jewel in the Green Oaks Capital crown, as the firm previously invested in fintech unicorns Robinhood and Stripe.
- Zap Inc., founded in 2017, is run by a staff of 13 people spread out from Chicago to Barcelona to Berlin.
- The team plans to issue a Visa card in 2020, making it one of the smallest startups to offer exchange services with mainstream liquidity in dollars.
- Zap Inc. investor Colleen Sullivan of CMT Digital said this small startup is unique among the dozen or so comparable startups, like Lightning Labs and Breez wallet, because Zap offers a “much more efficient and cost effective way for users to send and receive money while abstracting away the complexities of the underlying technology.”
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