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PayPal Holdings Inc. has put its new stablecoin to work as an investment tool with a PayPal USD investment in Mesh Connect Inc., an embedded-finance platform.
Announced Monday, the stake from PayPal Ventures, the digital wallet’s investment arm, was made almost entirely in PayPal USD, a stablecoin PayPal introduced in August. San Francisco-based Mesh did not disclose the amount of the investment or the portion not made with PayPal USD.
Mesh says this marks the first time PayPal USD has been used for a funding round by PayPal Venture. In September, Mesh closed a $22-million Series A round.
The PayPal USD coin is tied at a one-to-one ratio to the U.S. dollar and is issued by Paxos Trust Co. PayPal says its stablecoin is backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. securities, and similar cash equivalents. PayPal USD can be bought or sold through PayPal at $1 per PayPal USD.
“We’re thrilled to have the backing of PayPal Ventures as we execute against our vision of becoming the connection layer for a critical mass of crypto platforms and financial-service providers,” Bam Azizi, Mesh’s cofounder and chief executive, says in a statement.
Mesh launched in 2020 as a cardless payment service for businesses to manage subscriptions and on-demand payments. As an embedded-finance platform now, it says it has connections to more than 300 financial institutions, exchanges, and wallets.
