Puerto Rico’s Arival Bank To Raise Capital On Circle’s SeedInvest And Crowdcube.

According to recently published reports, a financial entity with a license from Puerto Rico will soon be able to operate for US crypto startups, if it can raise capital on Circle’s SeedInvest and Crowdcube.

Arival Bank is now awaiting the issuance of an International Financial Entity (IFE) license from Puerto Rican regulators before it can launch a crowdfunding campaign simultaneously on the US and UK based platforms. According to SeedInvest associate, Samuel Lawson, it has a target of USD 3 million.

Arival Bank CFO Jeremy Berger explained the thought process behind this move:

“It’s important for us to get the public involved, not just as investors but supporters of our vision. We need their feedback to drive the way we flesh out tech, for example. It builds a real word of mouth presence and we hope it’ll bring significant impact on customer acquisition.”

If all goes according to plan, a more traditional Series A funding round is in the works. The co-founders, Slava Solodkiy, Igor Pesin and Berger, all said that the slowness with which banks serviced crypto startups inspired Arival:

“We want to serve clients who are getting rejected by traditional and even digital banks: Crypto related businesses (our first target audience,) charity organizations, freelancers from co-working spaces, expats, refugees, residents from an e-residency program in Estonia.)

Lawson also revealed that it was this specific business model that made SeedInvest see Arival as a natural partner since the platform does due diligence on startups before listing their equities.

He went on to explained that SMEs and crypto-based enterprises were still severely underbanked and do not see traditional banks provide solutions for this growing sector of the global economy:

“Further, by taking a global approach and working to acquire an international banking license, the company fits well into the decentralised crypto model.”

Last month, Bitcoin News reported on a new bank for crypto traders in Puerto Rico, the San Juan Mercantile Bank & Trust International (SJMBT).

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.