Augustus disclosed on Tuesday that the company had completed a $180 million B round of financing, valued at $1 billion. According to the company, the funds would be used to advance a United States dollar clearing network for banks and financial science and technology companies, not in the direction of issuing its own stable currency, but in the form of access to licensed banking infrastructure.
Post-financing valuation increased to $1 billion
This round of financing was led by Tiger Global, with the participation of Hummingbird and QED, as well as by the founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle and Deel. Public information indicates that Sean Neville, co-founder of Circle, Balaji Srinivasan, former Chief Technical Officer of Coinbase, and Farooq Malik of Rain are also on the list of investors.
Augustus stated that the cumulative amount of corporate finance had reached $210 million.
No stable currency.
Companies disclosed that the focus of business was on the cross-border agency system, the clearing network on which cross-border transfers between financial institutions depended. Augustus hopes to provide banks and financial technology companies with a bottom-up system that links both traditional payment tracks and block-chain networks.
Its platform, using the API priority structure, supports operational and FBO accounts and can be settled through Swift, ACH, SEPA and stabilization currency. The company indicated that the lower core banking system, named Marble, could be used in back-office processes to increase the speed of settlement and support all-weather operations.
Approved by United States Conditional Bank
Augustus states that in May this year the company obtained a national bank licence from the United States Monetary Supervisory Authority (OCC) with conditional approval. According to the company, this is the eighth bank to receive such conditional authorization since 2010. Its current clients include the encryption exchange Kraken.
Ferdinand Dabitz, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, indicated that the financing would be used to provide better-quality dollar access to IFC and banks. According to corporate planning, follow-up will be extended to areas in Latin America, South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa where dollar access remains limited.
Additional information:The company considers the Chinese digital renminbi and the Russian proposal BRICS Pay as part of the global currency competition context, under which the value of the international expansion of the dollar settlement network is emphasized.