Main offline mapping software Maps.me has performed a $50 million seed funding spherical to embed decentralized finance instruments onto its platform.
The funding spherical for “Maps.me 2.0” was led by Sam Bankman-Fried of Alameda Analysis and in addition featured participation from crypto enterprise heavyweights CMS Holdings and Genesis Capital.
Maps.me 2.0 might be a wide-ranging software, that includes journey guides, resort bookings and mapping providers, along with change options and a multicurrency crypto-asset pockets providing annual yields of as much as 8%.
Alex Grebnev, the co-founder of Maps.me 2.0, advised Cointelegraph that customers will be capable to “generate yield on their financial savings by immediately lending it out securely to debtors.”
“We additionally plan to provide our customers the power to commerce a variety of belongings that aren’t restricted by geographical boundaries or transaction dimension.”
Maps.me claims to be the primary “mainstream app” to embrace DeFi, with the appliance boasting a consumer base of greater than 140 million after eight years of operation. Round 60 million customers have been lively in 2020. Bankman-Fried stated:
“By embedding and democratizing entry to yield-earning finance to hundreds of thousands of customers through an on a regular basis app, Maps.me has the potential to actually propel DeFi mainstream adoption and convey a groundbreaking expertise to the plenty.”
The announcement states the platform intends to “break down monetary silos decided by nationality or internet value” by way of its DeFi integrations. Grebnev additional defined:
“The trade is ready for a catalyst for the mass adoption of DeFi instruments and we’re excited to make this a actuality by leveraging our lively userbase as a method to bootstrap a retail group for a brand new progressive DeFi platform on Maps.me.”
“Our long-term imaginative and prescient is to create an embedded platform that mixes a broad vary of monetary providers that present a neater technique to make investments, pay, and journey. We see the power to bundle issues like international change, investing, bank card, and peer-to-peer fee providers — with low charges, no hidden prices, and powerful loyalty incentives,” he added.
Maps.me was launched in 2012 below its outdated identify MapsWithMe and was acquired by Mail.ru for roughly $14 million in 2014. On Nov. 2, 2020, Daegu Restricted, a member of Grebnev’s Parity.com Group, bought the app for almost $20 million.
Grebnev advised Cointelegraph that Parity acquired Maps.me with the target of constructing “an ecosystem that built-in DeFi instruments with a platform that had a big consumer base.”
