River Financial Announces $12M Series A Funding

We are pleased to announce that River Financial has raised a $12M Series A financing, led by Goldcrest Capital, with participation from Polychain Capital, Craft Ventures, M13, Castle Island, and The Kraft Group.

We started River Financial in early 2019, as two co-founders working out of a small San Francisco apartment, with the belief that Bitcoin has the potential to become a global reserve currency and positively transform the economic landscape of the world. In order to shift the economic paradigm, Bitcoin needed to be more accessible to the mainstream investor, because traditional investors find Bitcoin and incumbent “crypto” companies incredibly intimidating and confusing.

We believed that a Bitcoin-focused financial institution that adopted the best ideas of conventional finance would make Bitcoin much more accessible to the broader population. We set out to create the platform and service layer that would bridge the gap between early, technical Bitcoin enthusiasts and traditional investors around the world.

We were right. Over the past two years, companies and institutional investors have begun adding bitcoin to their balances sheets, and long-time critics and skeptics have begun to capitulate. In those same two years, River had a number of wins to celebrate:

Based out of our San Francisco office, we have grown to a team of 25.
We became the first company to legally provide Bitcoin services to Hawaiian residents.
We launched our native iOS app – which already accounts for 30% of order volume just five weeks after launch.
We launched River Learn, a Bitcoin-focused learning center aimed at educating the next generation of Bitcoiners.
We developed and made open source Bitcoinex, our Bitcoin library for Elixir, to give back to the developer community.

In the last nine months, River has experienced hyper-growth as a new wave of Bitcoiners participate in this monetary revolution:

River’s client base has grown by almost 600%.
Order volumes have increased by 3,500%.

What’s Next for River

The future of River Financial means remaining focused on what matters: our clients. We have always been a client-first organization, and are excited to further this commitment to our clients by investing in product development that puts the client experience first.

This additional funding is the beginning of an unprecedented year for River Financial: we look to expand our team, improve our existing products, and focus on creating new financial products and services that push Bitcoin adoption forward, furthering our mission of making Bitcoin more accessible to traditional investors. We are excited to continue building the next generation of financial services that accelerate Bitcoin on its trajectory to becoming the next reserve currency of the world.

As a dynamic, fast-growing financial technology firm, we have placed an emphasis on building a team that shares our founding principles. We continue to hire exceptional talent from across the finance, software, and product spheres, and recently have hired several new team members:

Bill Mongan joined our team from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. He will serve as River’s General Counsel.
Alexandra Gaiser has joined our team as Director of Regulatory Affairs by way of the U.S. Treasury where she worked under Secretary Mnuchin.
David Caseria, previously at Coinbase and Gemini, joins our engineering team.

Rockstar software engineers, detail-obsessed product managers, and client-first operators looking to work in a fast-paced environment and join this monetary revolution can learn more about our open roles on our careers page.

A Message To Our Loyal Clients and Supporters

For those who have discovered Bitcoin, and who have put in the time to develop an understanding and appreciation of it, it can be easy to forget that Bitcoin is still in the very early stages of global adoption. Satoshi’s revolutionary idea has only just begun to explore its potential.

Two years removed from its own genesis, River Financial is in very early days as well. And, at this moment when we can picture more clearly our own future, we want to take a moment to thank our loyal clients and supporters. Your enthusiasm for our business and the trust that you place in us every day drive us forward. As Bitcoiners, we have all been down the rabbit hole. We at River would sincerely like to thank those of you who have joined us through the looking glass as well. Wonderful things are ahead.