Cryptocurrencies

Crypto Checking Account Juno Closes $18 Million Series A

Despite the so-called “Crypto Winter” continuing, a FinTech that bills itself as a checking account for crypto natives has just secured a significant investment. This week, Juno announced that it had raised $18 million in funding. The Series A was led by ParaFi Capital’s Growth Fund with additional participation from Hashed, Jump Crypto, Uncorrelated Fund, Greycroft, Mithril, Antler Global, 6th Man Ventures and Abstract Ventures. Previously, the company closed a $3 million seed round in October 2019. According to Juno, it plans to expand its digital banking products with the newly-acquired funds.

Formerly known as OnJuno, Juno is a FinTech app that combines traditional and Web3 banking features. On the traditional side, users can open a USD checking account, earn cashback from top brands, and more. However, the app also allows users to buy, deposit, and withdraw crypto assets, as well as spend USDC (and earn additional cashback when doing so).

Juno’s funding round announcement was accompanied by the launch of its new tokenized loyalty program JCOIN. With JCOIN, users will be able to redeem their tokens for increased interest rates, boosted cashback limits, and more. Additionally, the app plans to also offer gift cards purchasable with JCOIN in the future.

Speaking to the idea behind Juno as well as JCOIN, the FinTech’s co-founder and CEO Varun Deshpande said in a statement, “Crypto natives in the US are finding existing banks completely inadequate for everyday use of crypto. We are rebuilding a checking account from the ground up with crypto and web3 at its core. Juno empowers members to earn part of their paycheck in crypto and use crypto for everyday transactions like bill payments or buying coffee.”

Deshpande continued, “Earning and using crypto are critical financial primitives for creating and growing a circular crypto economy. Our tokenized loyalty program is meant to further accelerate the growth of this crypto economy.”

ParaFi Capital principal Ryan Navi said of the company, “We at ParaFi Capital are glad to partner with the team at Juno. They are one of the very few teams we have come across who deeply understand both FinTech and crypto,” adding, “Their empathy towards users new to web3 and passion for creating beautiful crypto-native products with compliance at its core sets them apart. They are creating an entirely new category in neo banking and we are excited to back them.”

With this impressive Series A, Juno is really bucking the less-than-favorable trend that’s befallen crypto-centric firms as of late. In fact, as the company notes, they’ve managed to achieve 10x user growth in the last nine months — during a time when many other startups have been forced to lay off staff. This would all suggest that Juno is really onto something with its approach to crypto banking, perhaps setting them up to be a major player as crypto winter hopefully thaws.

Other Articles by Jonathan Dyer