Request Finance grew 5x amid crypto winter, says CEO

Crypto payroll startup Request Finance saw the total number of transactions on its platform grow five times amid the crypto winter. The number of monthly active users also more than doubled during the period.

The higher uptake was in part due to crypto companies moving their funds out of centralized exchanges (CEXs) following the FTX collapse, and into multisignature and multiparty computation (MPC) wallets.

Christophe Lassuyt, Request Finance’s CEO and co-founder / Photo credit: Request Finance

These companies then use non-custodial solutions such as Request Finance to manage spending transactions such as payroll and bill payments rather than doing it on a CEX.

The FTX fiasco “was really bad news, but our clients were safe,” says Christophe Lassuyt CEO and co-founder of Request Finance. He adds that the advice and best practices shared among the Web3 CFO club – an online community of more than 200 members backed by Request Finance – was helpful in mitigating the fallout.

Request Finance is part of a growing ecosystem of startups in Singapore providing back-end services to the crypto sector. Funding for this vertical is bucking the crypto bear market, with the company raising US$5.5 million in a seed round in June from Animoca Brands, Balderton Capital, and XAnge.

See more: The key players in Singapore’s thriving fintech space (update)

Headquarters, a company specializing in Web3 accounting and bookkeeping, also raised US$5 million in September in a pre-seed funding round led by Crypto.com Capital, Forge Ventures, and MassMutual Ventures.

Keen uptake for compliant crypto payments

Founded in 2017, Request Finance counts crypto majors Aave, Maker, Sandbox, Decentraland,and Fantom foundation among its customers. However, the startup also sees increased appetite for crypto payments from companies such as law firms, marketing agencies, and even freelancers, as it is now possible for crypto payments to be documented and legally compliant.

“We make things compliant. Now they have a proper document that they can show to the accountants, the auditors, and the authorities,” Lassuyt says.

Request Finance manages US$12.8 million worth of transactions monthly and has paid out close to US$300 million in payments since launching in January 2021.

Payments on the platform are made in more than 150 cryptocurrencies – the most popular ones are tokens Sand and Ankr as well as stablecoins USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Dai.

The platform is part of the Request Network ecosystem of decentralized applications focused on payments.