
{"id":27822,"date":"2024-12-12T07:21:44","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T07:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=27822"},"modified":"2024-12-12T07:21:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T07:21:44","slug":"kast-secures-10-million-seed-round-led-by-hsg-hongshan-capital-group-and-peak-xv-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=27822","title":{"rendered":"KAST Secures $10 Million Seed Round Led By HSG (HongShan Capital Group) and Peak XV Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>[PRESS RELEASE \u2013 Cayman Islands, George Town, December 12th, 2024]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kast.xyz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KAST<\/a>, a financial technology platform built on stablecoins to deliver a neobank-style experience, has raised US$10 million in seed funding. The round is led by HSG (HongShan Capital Group) and Peak XV Partners. A number of high-profile angels, partners of DST Global, and Goodwater Capital also joined the round.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor most countries and over half of global GDP, banking does not match the openness and speed of the Internet, it\u2019s fundamentally broken. Stablecoins are the clear solution, but the user experience wasn\u2019t great.\u00a0We are building KAST to change this\u201d, adds Raagulan Pathy, KAST\u2019s Co-Founder. Pathy is a stablecoin expert, formerly the VP for Asia Pacific &amp; CEO for Singapore at Circle, best known for USDC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-justify\">KAST offers payment cards and USD-denominated accounts to people in over 150 countries, the ability to receive and send cash, and working with partners such as Bridge (recently acquired by Stripe). KAST will soon launch savings and other remittance products \u2014 all without the need to touch fiat directly. The maturing of stablecoin regulation and acceptance has led to rapid integration with traditional finance networks, enabling users to send money faster, cheaper, and more securely. KAST highlighted use cases such as holding USD stablecoins as an alternative to volatile currencies, enabling people to buy imports and travel with a card, and allowing remote workers globally to get paid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe next generation of neobanks will be built on stablecoins and inherently global by DNA. They will differ fundamentally from the current generation of neobanks, which are limited in countries due to licensing, and struggle in integrating blockchain; their core systems and capabilities are just too different,\u201d comments Daniel Bertoli, co-founder of KAST and former Partner at Quona Capital, a global FinTech fund that focuses on investments in neobanks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-justify\">KAST has completed a $10 million seed funding round at an undisclosed valuation. Within its first four months, the company has demonstrated strong early traction in terms of user adoption and revenue. The team views this as a reflection of significant global interest in its platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-justify\">Stablecoins have experienced remarkable <a href=\"https:\/\/a16zcrypto.com\/posts\/article\/state-of-crypto-report-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growth<\/a> with over US$170 billion in supply, and US$8.5 trillion transaction volume in Q2 2024 by over 125 million users. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.binance.com\/en\/square\/post\/2024-01-29-stablecoin-industry-predicted-to-reach-trillion-dollar-valuation-by-2030-3411265758962\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Analysts predict<\/a> by 2030; user numbers will exceed 1 billion and supply will surpass US$1 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKAST delivers real benefits to global users. Their USD-denominated accounts provide a safe haven for hard-earned income when local currencies decline, especially for those without access to traditional US accounts. As more digital nomads receive salaries in stablecoins, they can now bypass the hassle of legacy rails. International transfers that once took weeks can now be completed instantly and at virtually no cost,\u201d said Alex Svanevik (CEO\/co-founder of Nansen.ai, an early investor in KAST).<\/p>\n<p>Users can visit the KAST <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kast.xyz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a> to learn more about KAST and discover how their innovative offerings can transform financial experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ql-align-justify\"><strong>Testimonials from card users<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spent two weeks at the bank trying to open a simple savings account. They asked for more than 10 documents (~100 papers) and had to sign and stamp each of them. And I opened a crypto card @KAST_official in literally 2min. Why would anyone go after traditional cards anymore? If i don\u2019t need my bank statements for embassies, I would always use crypto cards like @KAST_official\u201d \u2013 Mardeni (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Mardeni01\/status\/1842539696498380885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne tap to solve all my issues. That\u2019s all it took when I got my KAST card. Here\u2019s a quick recap, I\u2019ve been traveling a lot lately, and exchanging money has always been a hassle. You usually end up losing 5-8% in the process by the time the cash is in your hand. A friend of mine sent me a link and said, \u201cGive this a try!\u201d Fast forward two months, and I\u2019ve been tapping away quite a lot. Thanks to @KAST_official\u00a0\u2026 I\u2019ve used it across five countries over the last couple of months without any issues. It\u2019s made international spending and crypto usage incredibly simple\u201d \u2013 Alpha Bets (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Alpha69Bets\/status\/1843312385853141445\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just used my @KAST_official card to pay for my project\u2019s domain name and it worked seamlessly all I had to do was fund it with Solana USDC, this is actually a game changer for me and any other thing I\u2019ll want to do with it\u201d \u2013 Alex (<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Alexspoof\/status\/1841464170249679206\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><strong>About KAST <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kast.xyz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KAST<\/a> is transforming the financial-technology landscape, by offering a seamless blend of stablecoin technology with traditional payment means. The KAST platform enables USD accounts globally to 150+ countries, reaching over 5 billion people \u2013 offering a solution where banking falls short. The silky-smooth user experience is taking mainstream the openness, speed and security of stablecoins; KAST enables users to send, receive, save, and spend funds across borders efficiently. For more information, users can visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kast.xyz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.kast.xyz<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/kast-secures-10-million-seed-round-led-by-hsg-hongshan-capital-group-and-peak-xv-partners\/\">KAST Secures $10 Million Seed Round Led By HSG (HongShan Capital Group) and Peak XV Partners<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptopotato.com\/\">CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[PRESS RELEASE \u2013 Cayman Islands, George Town, December 12th, 2024] KAST, a financial technology platform built on stablecoins to deliver a neobank-style experience, has raised US$10 million in seed funding. The round is led by HSG (HongShan Capital Group) and Peak XV Partners. A number of high-profile angels, partners of DST Global, and Goodwater Capital [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":27823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}