Stablecoin-focused money transfer app Sling Money has raised $15 million in new funding.
According to a news release on Thursday (August 15), the Sling app combines stablecoin technology with a “user-friendly interface” and integrates with fiat payment systems to make it easier to transfer funds.
“Sling Money allows users to easily and instantly send money between other users, their own accounts, or even to non-Sling users using Sling Link in over 50 countries across Europe and Africa,” the release states. “Users can send money from Paris to Nairobi in seconds, and then from there to Bucharest, Stockholm or Amsterdam for free.”
The company says transactions take just seconds and incur little to no fees, claiming that these types of transfers typically take hours or days and charge the sender a fee of a percentage of the transaction amount.
Transfers on Sling Money are carried out using Pax Dollar (USDP), a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company.
“We believe money should work like everything else on the internet: it should be easy to use, fast and global,” said Mike Hudak, co-founder and CEO of Avian Labs, Sling Money’s parent company.
“The evolution of stablecoins and real-time payment systems around the world has made this possible. This functionality has existed for some time, but it was hidden behind complex and confusing interfaces. Our goal is to fix that.”
The funding comes as consumers still face several obstacles when it comes to sending money, according to a recent PYMNTS Intelligence survey.
According to a joint study with Ingo Payments, “The Fintech Instant Payments Mismatch,” 47% of fintechs allow consumers to send peer-to-peer (P2P) payments and 41% allow them to receive such payments, representing an increase of 10 percentage points for sending and 9 percentage points for receiving between Q3 2022 and Q2 2023.
“This development is great news for fintechs, as the data shows that P2P transfers rank as the No. 1 service consumers expect when working with a fintech provider,” PYMNTS wrote recently. “But the report, based on a survey of nearly 2,300 U.S. consumers and 150 fintech issuers, also found that fintechs could benefit from better aligning their services to customer needs.”
Consumers are more likely to use FinTech providers that offer a wide range of funds transfer options and fast transactions, while FinTechs promote convenience and customer experience as their key features.
“This could spell trouble if fintechs don’t change course,” PYMNTS wrote.
