Stablecorp Wants to Reduce Cross-Border Payment Friction

Venture investor Alex McDougall is embarking on a new endeavor that looks to simplify cross-border digital asset payments.

Stablecorp Inc., a fintech firm using bank-grade blockchain technology, was founded by 3iQ, Canada’s largest crypto asset manager and blockchain development company, Mavennet Systems.

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“We’re trying to deliver a bank-like experience,” McDougall said, “except with no bank attached to it.”

The Ontario-based startup saw an opportunity to participate in the financial system of digital assets after encountering challenges with traditional banking infrastructure, said McDougall.

“We built Stablecorp not as this radical getaway from TradeFi [traditional finance], but as the logical next step of evolution,” he said.

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Stablecorp aims to facilitate a cross-border version of on-chain commerce. To smooth out the friction inherent to this endeavor, Stablecorp has sought help from other platforms.

Presently, the company only works with American-based companies, including peer-to-peer payment company Circle as well as the nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation. In April, Stablecorp raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round, which was led by six companies, including Side Door Ventures and Genesis. Stablecorp is worth upwards of $5 million at the moment, said McDougall.

The company can be broken down into three parts. The first is the consumer-facing arm of the company, known as Grapes Finance, which launched last week and gives users the option to exchange their fiat currency for USDC or QCAD stablecoins.

Its second component is yield-as-a-service (YAAS), a tool that allows individuals and firms to borrow and lend data related to digital assets. Its final offering, known as the “Forge,” is a multi-chain software that gives individuals and firms alike the ability to track whether a deposit has been made.

The company is also working to bring cross-border capabilities to “spot desk, derivatives trading and currency hedging” while using on-chain assets. In addition, when a user onboards via Grapes Finance, it technically onboards with other counterparties, which can, in turn, grow the services that company offers, as well as their client base.

At its simplest level, McDougall said, Stablecorp is trading on models that already exist, but doing so with better risk analytics structures.

Prospective investors should “know that there's a kernel of magic in here, that is the blockchain world,” McDougall said.