Cyclops secures $20mn Series A for stablecoin payments infrastructure

Cyclops has raised $20mn in Series A financing to expand infrastructure that helps payments companies launch stablecoin products, according to the company. The round brings new venture and strategic capital into a segment where payments groups are seeking faster settlement, pay-in and payout capabilities tied to tokenised dollars and other stable-value digital assets.

Nava Ventures led the financing. Participants included Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, Lasagna Ventures and Global PayTech Ventures, which is led by Javier Perez, the former president of Mastercard and a founding investor in Adyen.

As part of the transaction, Kevin Chenault of Nava Ventures has joined the Cyclops board, the company said. Cyclops was founded by Alex Wilson, Pat Duffy and David Johnson and describes itself as a stablecoin infrastructure provider built for the payments industry.

One platform for stablecoin payments products

Cyclops said its platform is designed to reduce the operational burden for payment companies that want to offer stablecoin settlement, pay-ins and payouts. According to the company, those firms have often had to combine separate vendors and systems to assemble a working product.

The company says its model gives payments companies a single partner for the infrastructure required to bring those products to market. Cyclops said this can shorten implementation timelines to weeks, compared with months or years when firms rely on multiple providers.

Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to maintain a steady value, typically by referencing a fiat currency such as the US dollar. In payments, they can be used as a settlement asset or as the underlying instrument for cross-border transfers and merchant flows, subject to the operating, compliance and licensing arrangements of the businesses involved.

Chenault said Cyclops’ founders are suited to address the sector because they previously worked in payments and understand the operational issues companies face. He said the company is building stablecoin infrastructure specifically for payment providers.

Wilson, a co-founder of Cyclops, said stablecoin adoption has reached an inflection point and has been accelerated by agentic commerce. He said payments companies are well placed to benefit from stablecoin growth, but have historically had difficulty adopting the technology.

Founders draw on payments and crypto experience

Wilson and Duffy previously founded The Giving Block, a crypto fundraising platform for nonprofits. The Giving Block was acquired by Shift4, where the two led the crypto and stablecoin division for nearly four years, according to Cyclops.

Johnson, Cyclops’ third co-founder, is an international technology lawyer. The company said he developed its approach to global licensing.

Cyclops said it has built a merchant network of 300,000, expanded internationally and increased volume by 350% month on month. The company also said it has grown to 31 employees in less than a year and plans to double headcount by year-end.

Perez said Global PayTech Ventures is investing because it views Cyclops as a potential platform for future money movement infrastructure. Perez said he had spent his career helping to build payment rails over the past 50 years.

Cyclops said the new capital will be used to accelerate product development, expand local teams and licensing, and grow its go-to-market team.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.