In case you haven’t been tracking, former Simple cofounder Shamir Karkal has been quietly building another fintech startup here in Portland. But after today, it might not be “quietly” much longer. You see, that company, Sila, just raised $13 million.
The company was founded in 2018 by Shamir Karkal, Angela Angelovska, Isaac Hines and Alex Lipton to simplify digital payments and storage in a regulatory compliant way and build on blockchain technology. CEO Karkal has a long history in the fintech space, co-founding Simple, an app unifying various accounts into one accessible bank card, in 2009. It was acquired by BBVA in 2014 for $117 million and shuttered earlier this year.
The round was led by Revolution Ventures and includes Madrona, OVF, and Mucker Capital.
“Sila’s mission has always been to make money programmable. Access to the U.S. banking system, especially for innovators and entrepreneurs, is extremely complex and prohibitive. The Sila Money API platform provides easy, scalable, and compliant money storage and money transfer,” said Shamir in a press release. “We’re proud to be the platform of choice for any software engineer and app developer in the world, yet Sila is especially well suited for regulated industries including investment products, real estate, insurance, digital assets, and iGaming. Sila has worked hard to become the leader in embedded fintech, and we’ll continue our growth trajectory—the sky’s the limit.”
Sila will use the new funding to increase headcount, target additional partners and expand product features, including its Ethereum MainNet stablecoin issuance and interoperability between FedWire and the Nacha Automated Clearing House network.
For more on the funding, read the Sila press release. For more information on the company, visit Sila.
