SAN FRANCISCO, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Bitcoin
financial institution River Financial closed a $5.7 million seed round to build out its suite of
Bitcoin financial services. This multimillion-dollar round includes
funding from Polychain Capital, Slow Ventures, Castle Island
Ventures, DG Lab Fund, Cygni, Pfeffer Capital Ltd, and IDEO CoLab
Ventures as well as participation by several individual investors
including Steve Lee of Square
Crypto. Additionally, CEO and Co-Founder of Lightning Labs
Elizabeth Stark is an advisor.
River has demonstrated extraordinary growth this year with
average monthly volume increases of 80%. The number of clients has
also doubled each month since January. Part of the reason for
River's success can be attributed to "Bitcoin Boomers"—traditional
investors over the age of 55—buying significant amounts of Bitcoin
to hedge against potential inflation caused by the Fed's ongoing
quantitative easing. Since March, Bitcoin Boomers have driven 77%
of River's volume.
River Co-Founder & CEO/CTO Alex
Leishman expressed, "The surging activity we've seen since
the beginning of 2020 has been in part inspired by the Federal
Reserve's unprecedented monetary intervention. Additionally,
Bitcoin is growing up in the eyes of legacy investors like
Paul Tudor Jones, Dan Tapiero, Raoul
Pal, and others. These seasoned macro investors are showing
a growing interest in Bitcoin as the asset class continues to
become legitimized within the mainstream finance community."
On the tail of this funding, River also launched its Private
Client offering. This service is tailored to family offices, high
net-worth individuals, and other sophisticated investors who are
searching for larger order limits (up to $250,000,000), instant liquidity, and a dedicated
private client advisor.
"At River we are building the next generation of Bitcoin
financial services," said Andrew
Benson, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at River
Financial. "We believe that Bitcoin will play a key role in the
world's monetary systems over the coming years, and incumbent
institutions are not culturally or technologically prepared for
this future."
Instead of focusing on other cryptocurrencies, River believes in
focusing deeply on Bitcoin and expanding across financial services.
This focus allows River to build specialized infrastructure to
power novel services for its clients, such as hardware wallet
integration to support non-custodial financial products in the
future. River's Bitcoin focus also allows it to build more secure
infrastructure because it can lean on hardened, protocol-level
tooling for its online and cold storage, including native multisig
and partially-signed Bitcoin transactions. In addition to providing
best-in-class security, River has also integrated cutting-edge
technologies like Bitcoin's Lightning Network, something other
Bitcoin financial hubs and exchanges have lagged on
accommodating.
Polychain Capital founder Olaf
Carlson-Wee said, "We see River Financial as bridging the
gap between traditional finance and Bitcoin. The evolution of
finance is only happening faster in the wake of the current global
economic crisis, which has illuminated holes within traditional
financial systems that can potentially be filled by Bitcoin."
With this latest funding, River will continue its expansion
through the U.S. and build towards further product launches. Recent
hires—Jonathan Wilkins as Chief Security Officer, Rod Roudi as Chief Client Officer, and
Dave O'Callaghan as lead iOS
Developer—are the first step to securely scaling River's
infrastructure, building client and community relationships, and
working towards mobile services.
For media inquiries, please contact media[at]river[dot]com.
About River Financial
River Financial is a challenger financial institution specializing
in Bitcoin financial services. River Financial's flagship product,
a Bitcoin brokerage, provides sophisticated retail investors with a
high-touch platform to buy and sell Bitcoin. Founded in early 2019
by cousins Alexander Leishman and
Andrew Benson, River's brokerage
product provides its clients with best-in-class security, a
world-class client service experience, and investment performance
tools such as cost basis tracking.
To learn more, please visit River.com or follow us on Twitter
@RiverFinancial.
SOURCE River Financial