Sling Money Launches Beta in 50+ Countries, Enhancing Solana-Powered Cross-Border Payments

Solana-based payments app in closed beta following a $15M Series A round, simplifying international transactions.

Published: Aug 30, 2024 at 14:00
Edited: Aug 30, 2024 at 15:01

Sending money internationally on Solana using consumer apps just got easier.

Off the back of a successful Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures, Sling Money aims to facilitate instant transactions across 50+ countries worldwide.

Instant Cross-border Payments in Local Currencies - Powered by Solana

By removing the complexities of crypto onboarding, Sling Money brings Solana’s trademark speed to a simplified consumer application. The application is self-custodial, meaning users maintain complete control over their funds.

Sling Money automatically converts fiat deposits into $USDP, a stablecoin issued by Paxos. Leveraging the Solana blockchain, Sling Money enables users to instantly transfer funds to other accounts, which can in turn be withdrawn to bank and mobile money accounts.

“We believe that money should work the same way everything else on the internet works – that it should be easy to use, it should be fast, and it should be global. The evolution of stablecoins and real-time payments systems around the world makes this possible. This capability has existed for a while now, but it’s been hidden behind complicated, user-confounding interfaces. Our goal is to fix that.” - Mike Hudack, co-founder and CEO of Avian Labs, Sling Money’s parent company.

Initially, Sling Money used Circle’s $USDC, Solana’s most popular and widely used stablecoin. However, the company opted instead to move forward using $USDP, arguing that the “switch will help us expand into more countries in a sustainable way.”

According to SolScan data, $USDP only has a circulating supply of just over 306k tokens, which could be a liquidity concern as Sling Money scales. Undaunted, Sling Money co-founder Simon Amor informed SolanaFloor in an exclusive statement that ‘we work closely with Paxos so this isn’t an issue.’

Reinforcing this notion, Sling Money founder Mike Hudack previously announced the company’s partnership with Paxos via LinkedIn earlier this year.

Sling Money is currently in its closed beta, with the team periodically dishing out access codes via their 𝕏 account. Despite closed access, Sling Money has been downloaded over 1,000 times on the Google Play Store, suggesting people are eager to test the application.

Union Square Ventures Leads $15M Series A Round

On August 14th, Sling Money announced the conclusion of its $15M Series A funding round. The round was led by Union Square Ventures, a Web 2 firm known for previously backing household names like Twitter, Etsy, and Stripe, with support from Ribbit Capital and Slow Ventures.

“Sling’s vision aligns perfectly with our belief that building on payments infrastructure on the blockchain can fundamentally expand access, lower cost, and open new opportunities for users. We're thrilled to support the team as they do this." - Rebecca Kaden, Partner at Union Square Ventures

Sling Money is far from the first fintech startup to attempt to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and the general public. However, the application’s commitment to a simplified and abstracted design might make it more welcoming to a wider audience, helping to bring Solana to a wider addressable market.