Early-stage investment firm Antler Australia recently backed a new startup as part of an ongoing program to build great local tech companies.
Startup Daily shares details about each venture in its “Antler Investor Memos” series. The series is designed to give a quick and accurate understanding of the startup and the people involved, many seeking follow-up funding after his initial Antler pre-seed investment.
company: Syracuse
Date of formation: 2022
Business stage: Pre-seed
Founder: Sanjeev Rao and Babak Rafat
Current Investor: antler
Currently recruiting: yes
business
Despite the recent turmoil, the rise of cryptocurrencies as a viable payment method continues as blockchain becomes an increasingly robust alternative to traditional systems. More than a quarter of Australians now own or have owned cryptocurrencies, according to the report. Independent reserve cryptocurrency index.
In the meantime, payment volume growth is expected to continue CAGR 21.5% by 2026.
decentralized cryptocurrency payment solution, Syracuseis a multi-chain cryptographic payment gateway for secure transactions on the blockchain, allowing users and merchants to send and receive payments directly. Doing so ensures non-custodial ownership by third parties and protects personal assets.
Currently, liquidity concerns often discourage merchants from holding cryptocurrencies, while centralized providers require “know your customer” (KYC) information, so individuals can directly ask merchants for secure cryptocurrency. Making currency payments is often complicated.
Syrax provides a crypto-agnostic payment experience with full interoperability for individuals to pair their wallet with their cryptocurrency of choice.
The checkout experience for users is fast and smooth, and merchants can receive either stable coins or central bank digital currencies (CBDC), alleviating concerns about the stability of payments received. For merchants who accept cryptocurrency payments, payment times per transaction are instantly reduced, minimizing cash flow concerns and eliminating fraud chargebacks.
Antler’s Investment Theory
“Syrax’s decentralized non-custodial payment solution is a compelling offering in the ever-evolving cryptocurrency landscape. , the hassle of the traditional, time-consuming KYC process is gone,” said Kath Rogers, partner at Antler Australia.
“Our confidence in the founding team stems from Mr. Sanjeev and Mr. Babak’s extensive experience in the payments and e-commerce industry, as well as the impressive pilot projects secured within months of the initial investment.”
traction/milestone
Since securing an initial investment in Antler late last year, Cyrax has secured two pilot projects with e-commerce and marketplace partners, and several other domestic partnership discussions are underway.
Cyrax has participated in high-level discussions to integrate CBDCs with many major financial institutions. It forms a key part of various pilot programs that define how we interact with customers and other cryptocurrencies.
latest funding
Preseed source antler
Use of funds
Antler’s Pre-Seed funding allowed Syrax to double its engineering capacity to develop MVP and service pilot projects. At the same time, we will strengthen our direct sales pipeline and go-to-market strategy.
Syrax continues to refine product features ahead of future pilot projects. From here on, we will focus on developing new payment functions and business tools.
the founders say
“Our vision for Syrax is to become the world’s leading decentralized cryptocurrency payments provider. We believe that ease of use and custodial payments are the first step towards user trust. As a non-custodial third-party provider, ownership remains with the user,” said Sanjeev Rao, co-founder of Syrax.
“There are good reasons why Syrax does not rely on wallets and cryptocurrencies. Some users want to use decentralized cryptocurrencies only. We know that Syrax will be able to adapt to different use cases so that users can ultimately decide how to pay.
“Therefore, we see Syrax as a complete payment solution for all forms of cryptocurrency payments.
“Leveraging our extensive experience in the retail, e-commerce and payments industries, we have developed a purpose-built Syrax that has unique advantages in the payments industry and scales globally from day one.
“We have been very lucky to have Antler’s guidance, support and investment.”
what’s next?
Antler, a global early-stage VC, reveals all the latest investments made in ambitious Australian founders and start-ups. He has invested in over 100 early stage companies, Syracuse is one of its newest portfolio companies.
- StartupDaily is Antler’s official media partner in Australia.