Rain has raised $24.5M in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners

Rain leverages its partnership with Visa to issue debit and credit cards that can be used to make purchases and payments using stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies.

Crypto startup Rain has raised $24.5 million in a funding round as it expands its blockchain-based card issuer to provide digital dollar services to people globally.

The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Galaxy Ventures, Goldcrest, Thayer, and Hard Yaka, co-founder and CEO Farooq Malik told Fortune.

The startup previously raised $6 million in 2022, as part of its strategy to introduce corporate credit cards for DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations).

Rain, which partners with Visa to issue debit and credit cards, says that the cards can be used to make purchases and payments using stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies.

The announcement follows the company’s recent partnership with Avalanche to launch a Visa card that people can use to make payments using the AVAX token and stablecoins.

The startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand customer access to stablecoins and apply for additional regulatory licenses. It will also be hiring for several roles across its teams.

“A lot of companies now have a global workforce and lots of people have been getting paid in dollars across borders for the last decade or so. Stablecoins allow us, and our infrastructure allows us, to actually provide digital dollar services to people globally,” Malik said.

As part of its partnership with Visa, Rain receives a percentage of the fee that Visa charges merchants to accept payments using a Visa card. Corporate customers can also leverage the crypto card issuer’s platform for their card programs if they pay a subscription fee.