Bitcoin platform, Shakepay secures $44m CAD in Series A

By Leandra Monteiro

Shakepay, a Canadian bitcoin technology company enabling customers to easily buy and earn bitcoin through financial applications, announces a $44 million CAD Series A investment, at a $313 million CAD valuation. The raise is led by QED Investors, a US-based venture capital firm that invests in businesses that disrupts and empowers the financial technology industry, funding over 150 FinTech companies.

The funding will be used to scale Shakepay’s business and launch new products that make it easier for Canadians to gain access and exposure to the digital economy. As part of the capital raise, Matt Burton, Partner at QED Investors, will join Shakepay’s board of directors, alongside Shakepay’s founders, Jean Aminouny, CEO and Roy Breidi, CTO. With continued participation from Boost VC and BoxOne Ventures, the Series A round also included participation from Golden Ventures, Broadhaven, Henri Machalani, Mike Murchison, Jevon MacDonald, Mark MacLeod, Dan Debow, Farhan Thawar, and several product leaders from Shopify.

“I am extremely excited to partner with Shakepay for the next stage of growth,” said Matt Burton, Partner at QED Investors. “Shakepay has been able to build a very passionate community and find product market fit on multiple product lines, which is rare in today’s competitive environment.”

“We launched Shakepay to change the way Canadians access and engage with bitcoin,” said Jean Amiouny, Co-Founder and CEO of Shakepay. “As an ex-operator, Matt brings a wealth of relevant experience in the fintech industry, and we are looking forward to working with him to continue driving Shakepay’s goals forward.”

The new funding comes on the back of a surge in growth in 2021, with the company surpassing $6 billion in total volume, growing 381% in 2021 to more than 900,000 customers, and scaling its team from 20 employees to 75 employees across Canada. Prior to this new funding, Shakepay had raised roughly $1 million CAD to date.

“Shakepay is on a mission to make it easy for Canadians to build wealth with the most powerful financial technology ever created, bitcoin,” said Amiouny. “With our Series A funding, Shakepay is excited to welcome QED Investors, who have deep experience in the financial technology industry, and who will support the continued growth of Shakepay’s vision to be a leader in financial applications that help Canadians achieve financial wealth through investing in bitcoin.”

With the money raised, Shakepay is focused on bringing additional products to market that help its customers earn, access, and build wealth in bitcoin, like the Shakepay Visa Prepaid Card, which was launched in December 2021 to a list of 180,000 early access customers across the country. The Shakepay Card is a prepaid card in Canada that offers bitcoin rewards when spending a Canadian dollar balance with Visa-accepting merchants. All bitcoin cashback rewards are settled to a cardholder’s Shakepay bitcoin balance and will be separate from their Shakepay Card Canadian dollar balance. Customers can top up their card by sending an Interac e-Transfer to their Shakepay account.