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