River Financial Raises $5.7 Million to Roll Out Suite of Products to Accommodate Growing Bitcoin Demand
River Financial experiences 80% volume increase each month since January, demonstrating Bitcoin's ongoing role as a hedge during times of uncertainty
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
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