Ping, the global payment platform for freelancers and contractors, announced a $15 million seed funding round from key investors “including Y-Combinator, Race Capital, BlockTower, Danhua Capital, Signum Capital and Goat Capital.”
The funds from the investment round will “further propel and expand Ping’s platform to enable digital nomads to get paid in dollars or crypto, wherever they are, and offramp their salaries to local currency in an efficient and cost-effective way.”
Originally created to combat payment challenges in Latin America, the company is “now the official global solution for remote workers, contractors, and freelancers.”
Built on the rails of Latamex, Latin America’s largest fiat-to-crypto gateway, Ping was “founded by Pablo Orlando, who started his career in the stock exchange and is now a serial entrepreneur with 2+ exits in the fintech and consumer space, and sister and brother duo Mary Saracco and Jack Saracco.”
Mary comes “from a finance background, having worked at the M&A division at UBS Investment Bank and the World Bank, and Jack brings the tech and engineering side, as a crypto-native engineer.”
Pablo Orlando, Co-founder and CEO, said:
‘’Ping is the perfect solution for freelancers to get paid and for gig economy platforms like Braintrust, freelancer.com, Upwork to offer to their users. We established a platform that ultimately helps democratize access to higher paid jobs as a result of remote work. Ping enables freelancers and contractors globally to see the possibility of earning in dollars and saving in an account in the USA as the highest possible dream.”
The Ping platform “enables any individual, organization or company to create a free international account in US dollars and receive bank transfers – either in their foreign currency or cryptocurrency – instantly.”
Embedded in the platform is Ping’s invoicing system “where users can send invoices directly to their employers.” Additionally, users “can buy and receive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin through Ping.” It is live “in both Android and iOS app stores and has a desktop view.”
Robin Chan, General Partner from Goat Capital, remarked:
“Ping’s digital platform is the first of its kind for Latin America, and efficiently remedies ongoing payment issues with a mission to provide financial inclusivity on a global scale. We pride ourselves on investing in projects led by proven serial entrepreneurs. The funds will assist Ping with its global growth – we are delighted to join Ping in its mission to provide an international payment solution for digital nomads.”
The funds raised will be “allocated toward team expansion, hires for marketing and sales.”