East Ventures, Y Combinator back digital wallet’s $6.2m raise

Pebble, a newly-launched digital wallet, has raised US$6.2 million for its expansion across Southeast Asia in a round backed by Y Combinator, East Ventures, and LightShed Ventures.

Pebble co-founders Aaron Bai (left) and Sahil Phadnis / Photo credit: Pebble

Pebble’s e-wallet offers its users a 5% annual percentage yield on their money by converting deposits to stablecoin USDC before lending them to regulated financial institutions. It also offers unlimited 5% cashbacks for transactions supported by its 55 partnered merchants, including Amazon, Domino’s, Airbnb, and Adidas.

Users can also earn Pebbles, its rewards currency, through the platform’s Discord community, although the token doesn’t have any value as yet. However, the company said that the currency will be key to acquiring incentives for investors, merchants, and users.

These features come on top of the usual digital wallet services such as payments and a Mastercard-powered debit card.

Pebble was founded by its CEO Aaron Bai and CTO Sahil Phadnis in 2021. Currently only available in the US, the firm plans to roll out services to Southeast Asian markets by the end of this year.

See also: Move over UST, USDC’s the new face of crypto payments

Other investors in the round include:

• LD Capital
• Soma Capital
• Cadenza Capital
• Eniac Ventures
• Global Founders Capital
• NFL superstar Odell Beckham Jr.
• Muse lead singer Matthew Bellamy
• Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma
• Alt CEO Leore Avidar