Antler Investor Memo Series: Blockchain payment gateway Syrax is rewriting the rules for merchants using crypto

Early stage investment firm Antler Australia recently backed a new batch of startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local technology companies.

Startup Daily shares the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series, which is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and the people involved, with many seeking follow-on capital after Antler’s initial pre-seed investment.

Company: Syrax

Date of formation: 2022

Stage of the business: Pre-Seed

Founders: Sanjeev Rao and Babak Rafat

Current investors: Antlers

Currently raising: Yes

The company

Despite recent turbulence, the rise of cryptocurrency as a viable payment method continues as blockchain becomes an increasingly robust alternative to legacy systems. Over a quarter of Australians own or have now owned cryptocurrency, according to Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index.

At the same time, payment growth is expected to continue at a compound annual growth rate of 21.5% by 2026.

A decentralized cryptocurrency payment solution, Syracuse, is a multi-chain crypto payment gateway for secure transactions on the blockchain, allowing users and merchants to send and receive payments directly. By doing so, it ensures that there is non-custodial ownership by a third party, meaning that individuals’ assets are protected.

As it stands today, it is often complicated for individuals to make secure cryptocurrency payments directly to merchants as centralized providers require “Know Your Customer” (KYC) information, while merchants often have reservations about holding cryptocurrencies due to liquidity issues.

Syrax provides an agnostic cryptocurrency payment experience with full interoperability for an individual to connect their wallet and cryptocurrencies.

The user experience is fast and frictionless, and merchants can receive stablecoins or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to alleviate any concerns about the stability of payments received. For merchants that accept cryptocurrency payments, the payout time per transaction is instantaneous and minimizes cash flow issues, while eliminating chargeback issues caused by fraudulent activity.

Antler investment statement

“Syrax’s decentralized and non-custodial payment solution is a compelling proposition within the ever-evolving cryptocurrency landscape. The product’s interoperability gives merchants a seamless conversion path at checkout, removing the friction of traditional lengthy KYC processes, says Cath Rogers, partner at Antler Australia.

“Our conviction in the founding team stems from Sanjeev and Babak’s extensive experience in the payments and e-commerce industry, combined with impressive pilot projects secured within months of our initial investment.”

Traits/milestones

Since securing Antler’s first investment late last year, Syrax has secured two pilot projects with e-commerce and marketplace partners, with several other discussions for national partnerships underway.

Syrax has engaged a number of major financial institutions in high-level discussions to integrate their CBDCs. This will form a significant part of various pilot programs that define how to interact with customers and other cryptocurrencies.

Last financing

Pre-Seed from Antlers

Use of funds

With Antler’s Pre-Seed funding, Syrax has doubled its technical capabilities to develop its MVP and service its pilot projects. Alongside strengthening its direct sales pipeline and go-to-market strategy.

Syrax continues to improve its product features ahead of upcoming pilot projects. From here, the focus will shift to the development of new payment functions and business tools.

That’s what the founders say

“Our vision for Syrax is to be a world-leading decentralized cryptocurrency payment provider. We believe that ease of use and non-custodial payments are the first steps towards user trust. Being a non-custodial third-party provider keeps ownership with the user, says Sanjeev Rao, co-founder of Syrax.

“Syrax is a wallet and crypto-agnostic for a good reason. We know some users will only use decentralized cryptocurrencies. We know some merchants will only use a CBDC or stablecoin. In doing so, Syrax must be adaptable to differentiate our use case allowing users to ultimately decide how to make payments.

“And with that, we see Syrax as a complete payment solution for any form of cryptocurrency payment.

“With extensive experience in retail, e-commerce and the payments industry, we have purpose-built Syrax to be globally scalable from day one with a unique advantage in the payments landscape.

“We have been incredibly fortunate to have Antler’s guidance, support and investment.”

What will be next?

Antler, a global early stage VC, reveals all of its latest investments made in ambitious Australian founders and startups. With over 100 investments in early stage companies, Syracuse is one of the newest portfolio companies.

• StartupDaily is the official media partner of Antler in Australia.