Main offline mapping software Maps.me has performed a $50 million seed funding spherical to embed decentralized finance instruments onto its platfo
Main offline mapping software Maps.me has performed a $50 million seed funding spherical to embed decentralized finance instruments onto its platform.
The funding spherical for “Maps.me 2.0” was led by Sam Bankman-Fried of Alameda Analysis and in addition featured participation from crypto enterprise heavyweights CMS Holdings and Genesis Capital.
Maps.me 2.Zero can be a wide-ranging software, that includes journey guides, lodge bookings and mapping companies, along with alternate options and a multicurrency crypto-asset pockets providing annual yields of as much as 8%.
Alex Grebnev, the co-founder of Maps.me 2.0, instructed Cointelegraph that customers will be capable of “generate yield on their financial savings by immediately lending it out securely to debtors.”
“We additionally plan to provide our customers the flexibility to commerce a variety of property that aren’t restricted by geographical boundaries or transaction measurement.”
Maps.me claims to be the primary “mainstream app” to embrace DeFi, with the applying boasting a person base of greater than 140 million after eight years of operation. Round 60 million customers had been energetic in 2020. Bankman-Fried mentioned:
“By embedding and democratizing entry to yield-earning finance to tens of millions of customers through an on a regular basis app, Maps.me has the potential to actually propel DeFi mainstream adoption and convey a groundbreaking know-how to the plenty.”
The announcement states the platform intends to “break down monetary silos decided by nationality or internet value” by means of its DeFi integrations. Grebnev additional defined:
“The trade is ready for a catalyst for the mass adoption of DeFi instruments and we’re excited to make this a actuality by leveraging our energetic userbase as a way to bootstrap a retail neighborhood for a brand new progressive DeFi platform on Maps.me.”
“Our long-term imaginative and prescient is to create an embedded platform that mixes a broad vary of economic companies that present a neater strategy to make investments, pay, and journey. We see the flexibility to bundle issues like overseas alternate, investing, bank card, and peer-to-peer fee companies — with low charges, no hidden prices, and powerful loyalty incentives,” he added.
Maps.me was launched in 2012 beneath its outdated identify MapsWithMe and was acquired by Mail.ru for roughly $14 million in 2014. On Nov. 2, 2020, Daegu Restricted, a member of Grebnev’s Parity.com Group, bought the app for almost $20 million.
Grebnev instructed Cointelegraph that Parity acquired Maps.me with the target of constructing “an ecosystem that built-in DeFi instruments with a platform that had a big person base.”