BOOM: Crypto Payments Company Wyre to Shut Down
Posted on 01/04/2023
San Francisco-based Wyre was a cryptocurrency blockchain payments company that was once valued at US$ 1.5 billion. Wyre informed its employees that it is shutting down. This is months after Bolt Financial ditched a US$ 1.5 billion deal to buy the firm.
Wyre was first founded in 2013 by Michael Dunworth and Ioannis Giannaros. The company raised an estimated total of US$ 29.1 million across nine rounds of funding. Dunworth stepped down from Wyre and cashed out 12.5% of his holdings at the company. This occurred after Bolt Financial failed to buy the firm in September 2022. Bolt Financial wasn’t required to pay a termination fee.
In January 2021, Wyre raised US $5 million from the Stellar Development Foundation. In August 2020, Wyre raised US$ 3 million in a Series B1 round from that was led by Pantera Capital and included investors such as Boost VC, Fifth Era, Nice Capital, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and OK Group. Wyre raised in early 2019 US$ 8 million in a Series B round.