Stellar Development Foundation Injects $5M Into Abra’s Crypto Wallet and Exchange App

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has announced a $5 million investment towards Silicon Valley-based crypto wallet provider, Abra.

This non-profit organization's focus is the Stellar blockchain has been gradually expanding its footprint in the blockchain and crypto space despite stiff competition from industry rivals like Ripple. This is the Stellar Development Foundation's second investment in 2020, with the first being $715,000 into DSTOQ Group AG.

According to the announcement, Abra is now set to leverage Stellar’s blockchain tech for financial product innovations and existing services. Bill Barhydt, the CEO of Abra, has further echoed that the alliance will help them achieve their financial inclusion goals,

“Our goal is to democratize access to financial services… As we integrate with Stellar, we’re going to be able to build the next generation of banking [infrastructure],”

This investment in Abra comes as no surprise for those who have followed the company’s growth since its launch back in 2014.

The app has been portrayed as the ‘Robinhood’ of crypto trading, given its diverse portfolio of over 60 cryptocurrencies including the XLM token. Abra’s crypto wallet services have enabled the transfer of digital assets to be as simple as sending a text message across the globe.

The California startup has since attracted a significant amount of funding within its five years of existence. Stats show that Abra’s series A funding brought in $12 million, with a peak in 2018. Following the success, the firm consequently held a series B & C funding raising over $47 million in total.

As expected, both Stellar and Abra will likely benefit from this collaboration, given the underlying value. Barhydt said in an press release that Abra’s vision of financial democratization is pretty similar to what Stellar stands for.

It, therefore, gives the two an easier time to align their strategy to achieve the set-out services roadmap. He added that Stellar’s scalability was also a cutting edge in Abra’s line of business:

“We believe Stellar’s platform is one of the most scalable and versatile cryptocurrency platforms available today,”

Today, we announced our second enterprise fund investment in @AbraGlobal — a step that will facilitate Abra’s integration to Stellar and bring their expanding financial services and products to the network. https://t.co/GeMvPKjGFx

— Stellar (@StellarOrg) May 6, 2020