With Participation from Circle Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Kamal Ravikant
Ottr makes holding and using crypto as easy as Venmo for the next billion crypto users
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ottr, a new Web3 mobile app that makes holding crypto easier and more secure than ever, is pleased to announce it has closed on a $3.1 million pre-seed funding round led by Race Capital with participation from Circle Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Kamal Ravikant. Ottr will use proceeds from the round to expand to over 100 countries with the mission of making crypto more seamless and less intimidating for users worldwide.
The global crypto population is expected to reach one billion by the end of 2022, rising from 295 million in December 2021, according to Crypto.com. With global currencies continuing to decline in value versus the U.S. dollar, millions of users are looking for a solution in holding their savings and earnings in USDC, USDT and other digital currencies. Ottr provides a simple and intuitive solution that anyone with a phone can access in U.S. dollars.
With Ottr, millions of users around the world can instantly send USDC for free without going through the complicated steps of setting up their self-custody wallet and storing seed phrases.“I saw first hand the challenges of onboarding new users to crypto wallets. It is just too expensive and complicated,” said Aleksei Zakharov. “No one should have to worry about jumping through multiple hurdles and the anxiety of potentially losing their funds ever again. I truly believe we are building a Venmo-like experience for Crypto.”
“Since launching USDC in 2018, there has been a growing demand for payment networks embedded into Web3 wallets,” said Jeremy Fox-Geen, Chief Financial Officer of Circle. “We are proud to support the Ottr Finance team as they build this frictionless experience for users by connecting traditional finance with the future of money.”
“We are super excited at Race Capital to partner with Aleksei and his world-class engineering team to create this crypto app for all,” said Chris McCann, general partner at Race Capital. “From the first time we met Aleksei, we could see his passion, vision and insights in making crypto more accessible and easy to use for everyone.”
“I originally invested based on the founder and his vision. In three months, he raised a round and built a top-tier team of alumni from CashApp, Lyft and Yandex. Their product execution and speed has been some of the best I’ve seen,” said Kamal Ravikant, angel investor and best-selling author.
As a next step, Ottr will offer more sustainable yield products. Aleksei’s vision doesn’t just stop there: Ottr plans to add more financial offerings to become the decentralized finance super app for their users.
In November, Ottr will release limited Ottr NFTs that users can display as their wallet profiles. Sneak peeks will be coming on the Ottr Twitter.
About Ottr
Ottr is a Solana-based self-custody crypto app. With Ottr, millions of users globally can easily get started with crypto without the complexity of staking, on-ramping and gas fees. For more information, please visit: https://ottr.finance and follow Ottr on Twitter.
Watch this video for a quick tour of the product.
About Race Capital
Race Capital is an early-stage venture fund focused on investing in exceptional founders who are building market-transforming companies in the data, enterprise, infrastructure, and fintech sectors. Our team are seed investors in Databricks, Solana, FTX, Agora.io, Zeet, and many other great companies. For more information, visit https://race.capital/.
How Ottr Works
