Marwan Forzely is the CEO and founder of Veem, a next-generation global payment provider that enables businesses to transact in local currencies quickly and efficiently. The company does so through the use of blockchain and bitcoin. Using bitcoin allows the company to directly connect clients with their customers. What works best for clients and customer alike is that they don’t need to directly hold bitcoin to make these exchanges. Rather, an algorithm on the platform automatically routes transactions. Thus, Veem works to cut out the intermediaries in the payment process, such as banks and other financial institutions. Recently, Veem announced an additional $25 million raised in funding to continue their efforts.
The $25 million in funding was raised in large part due to Goldman Sachs. The Principal Strategic Investment Group, which is taking a large interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology developments, made the investment for Goldman Sachs. In addition, the managing director of Goldman Sachs, Rana Yared, will join Veem as a board observer. Goldman Sachs decided to invest in this company in order to continue to accelerate their own growth potential into the future. Beyond Veem, the Principal Strategic Investment Group has also invested in enterprise software developer Digital Asset Holdings, payments startup Circle, and Axoni, an infrastructure provider.
In addition to Goldman Sachs, GV, Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley Bank, Trend Forward Capital, and Pantera Capital got in on the round of funding. GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, has taken a much more direct approach to the investment. In the words of the general partner, Karim Faris, who is also on the board of directors for Veem, “We’re not a strategic investor. It’s definitely not a strategic thing. It’s an opportunity to create a stand-alone company and in the process make a financial return on a good exit or an IPO down the line.”
With the continued support of these companies and continued investments, Veem has grown from just around 600 customers in 2015 to more than 80,000 today. In a statement regarding the newest investments, Forzley said, “What’s important about this round is the acknowledgment of the size of the opportunity, the size of the market, the size of the pain point that we’re solving for and it’s an endorsement of the growth that we’re experiencing.” The latest round of funding at $25 million adds onto $24 million Series B raised in March 2017, bringing the total funding to just shy of $70 million.
Veem is keen to continue their exponential growth. To grow, they are planning to use the most recent funding to build out new partnerships and increasingly automate the onboarding process. Forzely sees a bright future ahead: “Whatever you do in life, at the end of the day there’s a payment. Payment technology is at the core of what people do and their livelihood.” He went on to say, “When you reconfigure the way money moves when you use it with a different infrastructure, you simplify the cost structure and you turn money back to the business owner, the end user.”
