Dakota raises $12.5m to bring banking into the internet age
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This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
This Dakota Series A Funding round shows that strong investor confidence in fintech solutions that put simplicity, speed, and user experience first.
Dakota, the crypto-integrated business banking platform, today announced it has raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures (6MV) and Triton Ventures. The new capital will accelerate Dakota's mission to build the world's first globally accessible business bank account, combining the speed and transparency of stablecoins with the safety of U.S. Treasuries to enable modern, borderless finance.
Founded by veterans from Coinbase, Square, and Airbnb, Dakota is reimagining how businesses move and store money across borders. Its platform enables companies to hold and transfer funds across USD or stablecoins while accessing familiar payment rails, such as ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, and SEPA. Behind the scenes, Dakota leverages blockchain technology to enable near-instant, verifiable transfers, keeping customer funds fully reserved and under the client's control.
Since launching in 2023, Dakota has already attracted over 500 business customers – from tech startups to international nonprofits – processing billions of dollars in annualized transaction volume. By using stablecoins as settlement rails and backing deposits 1:1 with U.S. Treasuries, Dakota eliminates the counterparty and liquidity risks that have plagued traditional banks, especially in the wake of recent crises like the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
'Companies are increasingly default global and they're being hamstrung by slow wire transfers, limited banking access, and the reality that once money goes into a bank, customers lose control,' said Ryan Bozarth, CEO and co-founder of Dakota. 'Our goal with Dakota is to bring banking into the internet age — giving businesses the ability to move money as instantly and freely as information travels, without sacrificing security or compliance.'
The timing couldn't be better. In the U.S., Congress is making meaningful progress on stablecoin legislation, with bipartisan support coalescing around frameworks like the GENIUS Act, signaling long-awaited regulatory clarity for dollar-backed digital assets. Globally, jurisdictions from the EU to Hong Kong are following suit, accelerating the shift toward compliant, mainstream adoption. Major incumbents are taking notice. Payments giant Stripe recently acquired stablecoin startup Privy and Bridge, while PayPal has launched its own stablecoin to keep pace with evolving market demands. These moves underscore how stablecoins are becoming an integral part of modern payments, offering businesses 24/7, borderless money movement at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
'We believe stablecoins can revolutionize business banking,' said Alex Felix, CIO of CoinFund. 'Dakota is unlocking that potential by combining the familiarity of a bank account with the power of crypto rails. They're not asking mainstream businesses to change how they operate — they're upgrading the engine under the hood.'
With the Series A money in hand, Dakota is expanding its product suite and geographic reach. The startup recently rolled out corporate cards, allowing clients to spend their funds via virtual cards while setting custom spend controls for their teams. It also added support for the international SWIFT and SEPA payment networks, on top of its existing U.S. ACH and wire capabilities, aiming to make sending money abroad as simple as a domestic transfer. Dakota is broadening its onboarding to customers across 100+ jurisdictions, including in the UK, EU (under MiCA regulations), Singapore, and Latin America.
'Business today is borderless, and dollars are a universal language,' notes Bozarth. 'We want to give entrepreneurs from Bogotá to Bangalore the same access to U.S. dollar banking that a startup in San Francisco would have.'
From a user perspective, Dakota feels like a typical fintech app; the blockchain complexity stays under the hood. Clients can send or receive payments via regular bank accounts without handling crypto directly, as Dakota seamlessly converts funds to and from stablecoins behind the scenes.
Dakota is betting on a comprehensive approach, blending global payment rails, multi-currency treasury management, and globally available corporate cards, will set it apart. The founding team's pedigree lends it credibility in both camps: Bozarth and his colleagues built security systems that safeguarded over $100 billion in digital assets, and also helped scale consumer platforms to millions of users. That mix of experience may prove valuable as they navigate the complex intersection of banking and blockchain.
Dakota's leadership is focusing on execution: growing its customer base, securing more banking partnerships, and continuing to invest in compliance and regulatory efforts. The company is betting that in a few years, startups will routinely hold dollars on-chain and send payments worldwide in seconds, as easily as sending an email. If that vision pans out, Dakota could emerge as one of the pioneers of stablecoin-powered banking. And thanks to its new funding, it has a running start in that race.
Businesses can get started today at dakota.xyz and experience modern banking built for the internet age.
With Dakota Funding now secured, the company is set to transform traditional banking infrastructure through digital-first innovation backed by its $12.5M Series A round.
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