In a Twitter announcement by Ten31, “Ten31 is excited to announce the closing of Strike’s Series B capital raise, for which we served as lead investor.”
Bitcoin rapid payment service, Strike, believes it can create a new milestone that no other person has ever achieved. The digital wallet has challenged credit card giants Visa and Mastercard in daily payment services.
Earlier today, Strike announced its fundraising of $90 million. This funding will be used to further its ambition and break what CEO, Jack Mallers, refers to as the "monopolistic, anti-American" dominance of credit card firms.
The funding round was headed by Ten31, and new investors like Washington University in St. Louis Endowment, University of Wyoming Endowment, and Susquehanna Investment Group joined the round.
In a tweet by the funding round leader,
“Ten31 is excited to announce the closing of Strike’s Series B capital raise, for which we served as lead investor.”
In addition, Jack Mallers stated the money would be used partly to develop partnerships with major retailers like Wendy's and Starbucks. It also aims to improve the payment experience for customers and merchandise.
Although the idea of challenging these credit card giants sounds crazy, Strike has been able to gain practical traction. This can be seen in its ability to have persuaded e-commerce giant Shopify and the global point-of-sale Service, NCR, to deploy its technology.
Strike deploys a technology known as the Lightning network. It is a Layer-2 solution that works by creating batches of Bitcoin transactions and verifying them immediately. This is a much cheaper alternative than the Bitcoin network, where transactions may take up to an hour at a high price.
Twitter’s tipping and payment also use Strike and the Lightning network. Merchants who use Strike can immediately convert any Bitcoin payments they receive to US dollars.
Mallers states he believes about 50% of US businesses will adopt the technology before the end of 2023. He also believes Strike will soon challenge Western Union as a remittance service. A report by the investment bank, Morgan Stanley, suggests this development might spur the use of Bitcoin as a mainstream payment method.
