London-based wallet for Ethereum-based digital currencies and blockchain applications, Argent has raised $40 million in funding to accelerate its mission to build one app for all things DeFi and Web3. The Series B round was led by Fabric Ventures and Metaplanet, with existing investors Paradigm, Index Ventures and Creandum and strategic investors, including Starkware, Jump and Animoca.
Founded in 2017, the platform is enabling customers to buy, trade and earn crypto at the tap of a button, reducing transaction fees from hundreds of dollars to cents, eliminating dated security measures, such as seed phrases, and all within a simple and clean user interface.
Since the launch of its new Layer 2 account last year, it has attracted more than 500,000 users. Going forward, the platform is building a single app for all things DeFi and Web3, and is actively exploring new features and verticals, including virtual real estate, gaming, DAOs and NFTs.
Itamar Lesuisse, co-founder and CEO, Argent said: “For crypto to live up to its potential, it needs to break the stranglehold of big exchanges and incumbent wallets. The experience is too scary, expensive and insecure for most people. Argent fixes this.”
Witnessing growing demand from Latin America, it plans to expand in the region, beginning with Mexico. The firm will also continue to seek partnerships for payment methods that suit each region.
“This latest investment will enable us to double-down on product development, bringing more DeFi and Web3 use cases to the app, and enable us to expand into South America, where due to high levels of inflation and a deep mistrust of institutions, our product-market fit is especially strong,” Lesuisse added.
Anil Hansjee, general partner, Fabric Ventures added: “Wallets will be central to value accrual in web3 as users become sticky to their wallet provider. And people, in particular, will prefer offerings like Argent’s. Its self-custody, smart contract wallet combines security, usability and low fees.”
