US-based digital payments services provider Ripple closed its series A round at $32m yesterday following a $4m investment by Santander InnoVentures, the venture capital arm of financial services firm Santander.
The round’s $28m first close was reached in May 2015, after Ripple secured funding from backers including data storage company Seagate, futures exchange operator CME and IDG Capital Partners, an investment affiliate of publisher International Data Group.
The first close also included AME Cloud Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, China Growth Capital, Wicklow Capital, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Core Innovation Capital, Route 66 Ventures, RRE Ventures, Vast Ventures and Venture 51.
Internet technology provider Google had been rumoured in January 2015 to be considering an investment through its corporate venturing unit Google Ventures, but has not been named in subsequent press releases.
The XPR technology developed by Ripple, previously called Ripple Labs and originally launched as OpenCoin, is similar to that of cryptocurrency bitcoin. The decentralised XPR payment system can verify transactions and is aimed at smaller banks to avoid fees charged by intermediary financial institutions.
IDG Capital Partners previously contributed to a $3.5m seed round in November 2013, alongside Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Camp One Ventures, FF Angel, Core Innovation, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vast Ventures and Venture51.
Google Ventures and IDG Capital Partners injected an undisclosed amount of seed funding in the company in May 2013, following a commitment the previous month from Andreessen Horowitz, FF Angel, Lightspeed, Vast Ventures and Bitcoin Opportunity Fund.