Prime Trust Raises $64M to Scale Fintech Infrastructure Biz

Fintech infrastructure and crypto custody firm Prime Trust is planning a major expansion of its services after a $64 million Series A, the firm announced Wednesday.

Calling it an “institutional round,” CFO Rodrigo Vicuna said the funding will help five-year-old Prime Trust court opportunities across the fintech landscape, not just crypto. 

Prime Trust provides payment, settlement, know-your-customer and liquidity APIs that Vicuna said covers “the full infrastructure stack” for fintechs like neo-banks and crypto exchanges.

The round was led by Mercato Partners’ growth equity fund, Traverse. Nationwide, Samsung Next, Kraken Ventures and Seven Peaks Ventures also participated, with Seven Peaks’ Tom Gonser and Mercato’s Zane Busteed joining Prime Trust’s board.

Nevada-based Prime Trust’s Series A comes as crypto companies of all stripes race for a claim of frenzied venture capital. Startups are scaling while money is cheap under the belief that demand for their services will, with crypto, only grow.

Vicuna said Prime Trust has grown 448% year over year and is now projecting an annual revenue run rate (an estimate of future revenue based on past performance) of $100 million. He said revenue has doubled every year since Prime Trust’s custody wing launched in 2017.

Vicuna said Prime Trust’s “plug and play” APIs are an “explosive” and central part of the business, with 250 million calls by clients including Binance.US, Kraken, Bittrex and Strike per month.

“Every API ping is a client wanting to use our platform for a specific thing,” Vicuna said. 

The company is now planning to delve deeper into the alternative investments space through tie-ups with neo-banks and registered investment advisors. The funding will help Prime Trust hire teams and add systems, Vicuna said.

“There's not a department in the company that doesn't have agressive hiring plans right now as a result of this funding,” Vicuna said.