In this blog post, Notabene CEO Pelle Brændgaard announces the company's $14.5 million Series B funding round. He discusses Notabene's vision to build a decentralized trust infrastructure that enables secure transactions between a wide range of financial institutions, from crypto natives to traditional banks. Brændgaard highlights how this trust infrastructure is crucial for the widespread adoption of stablecoins as the next generation of settlement rails.
Nearly five years ago when Alice, Ania, Andrés, and I sat down to start our journey to making crypto part of the everyday economy, we realized it was an amazing opportunity for us to really solve some of the foundational issues we saw were inherent in crypto and the crypto industry of 2020.
Trust between the many varied crypto native institutions, traditional finance, and global regulators seemed missing and, frankly, not many people cared back then. As early Bitcoin and Web3 developers, we believe in the importance of decentralization and people managing their own keys. And yet we also realized that institutions are as critical to scaling and making crypto safe for regular people and use-cases as they are in the cash-based economy.
Thus, our simple plan: to help crypto native companies trust each other and allow regulators to feel safe and comfortable for their constituents to entrust their money with this new generation of crypto native fintechs. This is ultimately about adoption of crypto and stablecoins globally with everyone and everywhere.
Announcing our Series B
Today marks a significant milestone in Notabene's journey, as we announce our $14.5 million Series B funding round led by DRW VC, with participation from funds managed by Apollo, Nextblock, and Wintermute, along with existing investors CMT Digital, F-Prime, Green Visor Capital, Illuminate Financial, Jump Capital, Signature Ventures, and Y Combinator. This investment is a testament to our vision of building a trust infrastructure that enables all financial institutions—from crypto natives to traditional banks—to transact securely and confidently in the digital age.
It's noteworthy that DRW, Wintermute, and Jump (who co-lead our Series A) are all major players in providing the critical underlying liquidity that powers the crypto ecosystem. Their participation underscores their deep understanding of the importance of institutional trust infrastructure in driving the industry forward.
Our Journey So Far
We recognized early that the future of finance would require a new kind of trust infrastructure. Traditional finance relies on centralized gatekeepers, while crypto operates on trustless technology. We saw the need for a middle ground—a way for institutions to build trust through transparency and verifiable credentials while maintaining their autonomy.
What started as helping companies implement the Travel Rule has evolved into something much more fundamental: a decentralized trust network that enables any financial institution to verify, trust, and transact with counterparties globally. Today, having processed nearly $500B in transactions through our Transaction Authorization Network, we've proven that compliance and transaction volume can go hand in hand when built on the right foundation.
Why Institutional Trust Infrastructure Matters More Than Ever
The financial industry stands at a crossroads. Crypto natives have built incredible technology but struggle with trust. Traditional financial institutions have deep trust relationships but are constrained by legacy infrastructure. Fintech companies are bridging the gap but need better tools to build trust with both sides. These dynamics create the perfect conditions for a new kind of financial infrastructure built on verifiable trust rather than centralized gatekeepers.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the evolution of stablecoins. While stablecoins solve the fundamental challenge of instant, 24/7 settlement, they can only replace traditional settlement rails if institutions can trust who they're transacting with before they send funds. This is where our pre-transaction authorization infrastructure becomes crucial—enabling institutions to verify counterparty identity, assess risk, and ensure compliance before a single dollar moves.
What excites me most is seeing how our trust network enables entirely new ways of collaboration between different types of financial institutions. When a crypto exchange can instantly verify the compliance credentials of a traditional bank, when a fintech can prove its trustworthiness to multiple partners simultaneously, when institutions can maintain their high standards while embracing innovation—that's when we know we're building something transformative.
Building the Trust Network
This funding will accelerate our vision in three key areas:
- Network Expansion: Our network of 165 customers and 1,600 profiles is just the beginning. We're building the world's most comprehensive network of verified institutional identities, enabling any financial institution to find and trust counterparties globally.
- Trust Infrastructure: We're investing heavily in our pre-transaction authorization platform and decentralized trust infrastructure. This enables institutions to comply with regulations and build verifiably trusted relationships at the scale needed for stablecoins to become the next generation of settlement rails. By solving the "trust gap" that has held back institutional stablecoin adoption, we're helping create a future where instant, global settlement is the norm, not the exception.
- Global Standards: We're working with regulators and industry leaders, particularly in the EU with MiCA and the US, to establish standards for institutional trust that work for everyone - from the most innovative crypto native to the most conservative bank. These standards will be crucial as stablecoins increasingly become part of the core financial infrastructure.
A Foundation Built on Trust
Our success comes from understanding that trust can't be enforced - it must be earned and verified. We've built a team that deeply understands both traditional finance's trust requirements and decentralized technology's innovative potential. This unique perspective allows us to bridge the gap between stablecoins' instant settlement capabilities and institutional finance's trust requirements.
DRW's Kimberly Trautmann captures this well: "Notabene offers a comprehensive and efficient way to track and disclose who an asset is being sent to, which is critical for Virtual Asset Service Partners. We believe Notabene is positioned to be the provider of choice."
To Our Stakeholders
To our customers: Thank you for your trust. We're committed to being your long-term partner in building compliant digital payment infrastructure. This funding will help us serve you better and support your growth.
To our team: Your dedication to solving hard problems while maintaining the highest compliance and security standards has brought us here. We're just getting started.
To our investors: Thank you for believing in our vision. We're building infrastructure that will reshape how value moves around the world.
The Road Ahead
The next phase of finance will be defined by how successfully different types of institutions can work together. This isn't just about compliance or technology, it's about building an ecosystem where traditional banks, fintechs, and crypto companies can each maintain their identity while building meaningful trust relationships with others.
We see a clear path to stablecoins becoming the backbone of institutional settlement. The technology for instant, 24/7 settlement exists today—what's missing is the trust infrastructure to make it work at scale. By solving the critical challenges of pre-transaction authorization and institutional trust, we're removing the final barriers to widespread stablecoin adoption.
We're creating a world where a bank can instantly verify a crypto exchange's compliance credentials, a fintech can prove its trustworthiness to multiple partners simultaneously, and innovation doesn't come at the cost of trust. A world where institutions don't need centralized gatekeepers to trust each other because they have the tools to verify trust directly. A world where settling a cross-border payment is as instant and simple as sending an email but with all the trust and security that institutions require.
Our journey continues, and we're more excited about what's ahead. If you're interested in being part of building this trust-based future - whether as a customer, partner, or team member - we'd love to hear from you.
The future of finance is being built today, and it's being built on verifiable trust relationships between sovereign institutions. We're proud to be leading the way. Our vision of crypto being a key part of the everyday economy is closer than ever.
Pelle Brændgaard is the CEO and co-founder of Notabene. Follow him on Twitter @pelleb for more insights on the future of compliant digital payments.
