Latitude said Wednesday it has raised a $35 million Series A led by Oak HC/FT to connect stablecoin settlement with local payment rails. NEA, Coinbase Ventures, Lightspeed Faction and OpenFX also joined the round.
The company said the new capital will be used for licences and local payout connections, the part of a stablecoin payment flow that still runs through banks and domestic payment schemes. Latitude holds those permissions itself rather than renting them, and said that is a key part of what customers are buying.
The Series A follows an $8 million seed round earlier this year and brings Latitude's total funding to $43 million.
Latitude was founded by Cyril Mathew, Brian Wrightson and Vivek Morzaria. The company said the founders previously held roles at Stripe, Coinbase, Meta, Uber and Zero Hash.
"You shouldn't need to understand stablecoins to use them," co-founder and CEO Cyril Mathew said. "We built Latitude so a business can move money in and out of any market and have it just work."
Licences and compliance stack
According to Latitude's website, the company has 39 money transmission licences, one state registration and five no-action letters. Latitude Payments Inc. is also registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, as a money services business.
The site says a SOC 2 Type I audit has been completed, while SOC 2 Type II is targeted for the fourth quarter.
Markets already live and markets in beta
Latitude lists live payout markets in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines, India and most European countries.
It also lists Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Thailand, Vietnam and several African countries as beta markets.
Competition around the payout layer
Oak HC/FT partner Oivind Lorentzen said, "Latitude has taken on that hard work from the beginning, building the regulatory foundation and local connectivity required to operate at scale."
Other companies are also moving into the same layer. The Defiant reported that Circle agreed this week to acquire Tazapay for $400 million in stock. The Defiant also reported that Privy launched fiat on-ramps with Stripe in the U.S. and the EU in July, while Deel expanded its DLUSD wallet to more than 80 countries in August.