The team behind crypto payments app Valora is joining Stripe as the payments giant increasingly expands into blockchain technology and stablecoins, Valora founder Jackie Bona said in a blog post Wednesday.
“We have seen first-hand how access to stablecoins and crypto rails can increase economic opportunity,” Bona said. “Over the past few months, it has become clear that we can accelerate this mission by joining Stripe, one of the world’s leading financial infrastructure platforms.”
Valora is a mobile-first crypto payments app built on a layer 2 Ethereum network. The startup spun out of cLabs, the development organization behind Celo, in 2021 and raised $20 million at the time.
A Stripe spokesperson confirmed the news to CoinDesk, adding that the Valora team’s “experience with crypto wallet infrastructure and on-chain development tools brings valuable expertise to our ongoing crypto efforts.”
The news follows Stripe’s recent efforts to integrate crypto rails into its payments capabilities, as stablecoins become popular cross-border payment tools. The company recently acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge and wallet app Privy. It also developed (in collaboration with crypto investment firm Paradigm) a payments-focused blockchain called Tempo, designed for stable payments. Tempo is already in the testing phase.
Read more: Why Circle and Stripe (and many others) are launching their own blockchains
