US-based blockchain-driven money transfer platform Ripple has repurchased the shares it sold through its series C round from investors including financial services firm SBI at a $15bn valuation, it revealed on Tuesday.
The valuation is an increase from the $10bn figure touted for the $200m round, in 2019, which was led by investment firm Tetragon and also backed by Route 66 Ventures.
Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse confirmed to Axios it paid over $300m in cash for the shares, though the investors had at one point suggested accepting the payment in the company’s XRP cryptocurrency.
Founded in 2012, Ripple operates an enterprise payment protocol called XRP that helps financial services firms provide fast and affordable transactions through blockchain technology.
The company has been trying to position the XRP tokens as an intermediate currency to assist banks and financial institutions in carrying out cross-border financial operations through its software.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple, Garlinghouse and former CEO Chris Larsen in December 2020 for offering XRP coins, which the agency considers unregistered securities, to the public. SEC’s claims caused the price of XRP to plunge and multiple exchanges discontinued trading of the currency.
Tetragon unsuccessfully sued the company the following month in a bid to retract its $175m commitment to the series C round, the Delaware Chancery Court ruling in Ripple’s favour in April 2021. SBI supported Ripple in the lawsuit, having already entered a crypto joint venture with it dubbed SBI Ripple Asia.
The company paid for the shares using capital on hand, a Ripple representative told Decrypt, claiming it has an “extremely strong position in the market” as well as “$1bn in the bank and a strong balance sheet”.
Ripple had its most profitable year in 2021 as the number of its payment transactions doubled and its geographical presence increased from three to 22 markets. XRP is trading at roughly $0.60 and is currently the eighth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, according to CoinMarketCap.
The company had previously secured $290m in total funding, including $55m in a 2016 series B round backed by SBI, consulting firm Accenture, currency exchange CME, data storage system provider Seagate and financial services groups Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank and Santander at a $355m valuation.
Santander’s venture capital arm, Santander InnoVentures, (now spun off as Mouro Capital) took part in a $32m series A round for Ripple in 2015 that included Seagate, CME, Route 66 Ventures, Venture 51, IDG Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, China Growth Capital, Wicklow Capital, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Core Innovation Capital, RRE Ventures and Vast Ventures.
Internet technology group Alphabet’s GV unit was among Ripple’s earlier backers, as were IDG Capital, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Camp One Ventures, FF Angel, Core Innovation, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vast Ventures and Venture51.
