Mash, a cryptocurrency FinTech startup, has raised $7.5 million CAD ($6 million USD) to help builders, creators, and developers generate revenue for their online work.
“There’s an explosion in the number of people who want to be full-time creators and builders … they need an easy way to actually monetize the value they deliver.”
– Jared Nusinoff
“There’s an explosion in the number of people who want to be full-time creators and builders. But to go full time, they need an easy way to actually monetize the value they deliver,” said Jared Nusinoff, founder and CEO of Mash.
Mash’s technology is built on a foundation of Bitcoin, and the Lightning Network. The latter is a decentralized network that enables instant payments across networks.
Castle Island Ventures and Whitecap Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Maple VC, Strategic Cyber Ventures, Aquanow, Spacecadet Ventures, and several angel investors. The angel investors included Amjad Masad, the CEO of Replit, a United States collaborative browser startup; Balaji Srinivasan, a former CTO at Coinbase, and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz; and Dean Skurka, the president of Bitbuy Canada.
The round closed in May, and Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures joins the Mash board while Russell Samuels, partner at Whitecap Venture Partners, joins as a board observer.
The startup will use the new funds to build out and commercialize its Bitcoin and Lightning Network payments platform; grow its team across engineering, marketing, sales, and business development; and execute on its go-to-market strategy. Currently the startup has six staff, and hopes to double that within the next six months.
“With the maturation of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, the timing has never been better to commercialize the concept of dynamic digital payments,” said Samuels. “With tens of millions of developers globally, and hundreds of thousands of new apps launching each year, the potential for Mash is significant.”
Mash went with crypto rather than fiat finances because it wanted to bring what it viewed as the “power” of open digital money to global markets, enabling payments to anyone, anywhere around the world for what the startup claims is next to nothing, and for any amount, including a fraction of a penny.
The idea behind Mash is to provide a compensation model for builders of no-code apps, games, widgets, and tools; developers of applications and platforms; and creators of communities and content. The startup recently launched a beta version of its first product that enables web apps and creators to charge based on access/usage and add a consumer digital wallet with just a snippet of code. Mash is also in the process of onboarding several partners.
Mash currently contends that the builders, developers, and creators have to rely on ads that require millions of users; subscriptions and up-front purchases that don’t convert and result in churn; and aggregators that “restrict, censor and control them.”
Mash offers “pay-as-you-enjoy” pricing options, which it claims eliminates any up-front commitments to purchase. Its pricing can be based on usage, access, and time – from content read, messages sent, votes made, crowd-unlocks, tips, games played, time spent watching/listening, boosts, and downloads.
Payment is made using a digital wallet that does not need to be downloaded, is interoperable across the internet, and can be loaded directly with a credit card or Bitcoin.
Mash is in the process of onboarding several partners. Nusinoff told BetakKit that it’s not currently charging early partners, and that the startup will earn a small percentage of the funds that its clients take in.
Nusinoff called Bitcoin and Lightning transformative, and said the cryptocurrency and network are redefining money on a global scale.
Nusinoff founded Mash in 2021. That same year, Castle Island Ventures led a pre-seed round for an undisclosed amount.
Nusinoff said Mash is continuing to build product features on top of its platform, and ramping up its integrations and go-to-market efforts. “We’re dedicated to remonetizing the internet – helping builders, creators and developers earn significantly more based on the value they provide,” he added.