Trace Finance, the financial infrastructure company founded in 2021 by Brazilians Bernardo Brites (CEO), Leone Parise (CTO) and Rafael Luz (COO), closed a US$32 million Series A led by CoinFund. The round included the participation of Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Crypto, Valor Capital, Paxos and HOF Capital, among others, and marks a new step in the company’s expansion into large global companies and new regulated markets.
The Series A also added the support of strategic investors such as Chainlink Labs and SNZ Capital, along with founders and executives: Sean Neville, co-founder of Circle; Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs; and Ricardo Villela Marino, partner and vice president of Itaú Unibanco, the largest bank in Latin America.
The thesis: stablecoins plus local banking infrastructure
Trace built its proposal on a clear premise: stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments, but combined with regulated local banking infrastructure they do. The company developed that infrastructure first in Brazil, one of the most complex payments environments in the world, processing more than $10 billion in institutional volume and becoming the primary provider to the four largest global payment processors operating in Latin America.
“This round allows us to strengthen the banking, payments and compliance infrastructure that global fintechs, exchanges, international banks and enterprises rely on to connect digital settlement with trusted local financial systems,” said Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of Trace Finance.
Expansion into new markets
With the new resources, Trace will seek to deepen its capabilities in foreign exchange, banking connectivity, regulatory compliance and stablecoin settlement, expanding its regulated presence in Brazil, the United States, Asia-Pacific and other priority jurisdictions. The company is also developing new settlement products designed to connect the region’s local financial systems with global liquidity.
This Series A follows the 2022 seed round, led by HOF Capital with participation from Circle Ventures and Mantis VC, which at the time was subscribed four times over the original goal, an early sign of the traction that today consolidates Trace as one of the most relevant players in Latin America’s cross-border payments infrastructure.
