Offline travel app Maps.me has raised $50M (approx €41.3M) in a fresh round of funding led by Alameda Research, a Hong Kong-based investment firm and liquidity provider. Genesis Capital and CMS Holdings also participated in this round.
Use of the raised capital
Reportedly, the new funds will help the company to roll out a multi-currency wallet on Maps.me and enable a decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem on the platform. With DeFi, it looks to develop the tool into an “everyday app,” making Maps.me more mainstream.
This means that the Maps.me 2.0 version would allow users to store values and earn yields of up to 8 per cent, as well as make both domestic and international transactions. The app would also have a cashback feature on its transactions.
“By embedding and democratising access to yield-earning finance to millions of users via an everyday app, Maps.me has the potential to really propel DeFi mainstream adoption and bring a groundbreaking technology to the masses,” says, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of Alameda Research and also crypto exchange FTX.