HomeTechOpenFX launches venture arm; has invested in Miami’s Jeeves and Cyclops

OpenFX launches venture arm; has invested in Miami’s Jeeves and Cyclops

OpenFX, the financial infrastructure company with a fast-growing Miami hub, is launching an investment arm, seeking to partner with early-stage founders to help modernize the movement of money across international borders using stablecoins.

OpenFX Ventures plans to invest from $20,000 to $100,000 in partner companies, but “will go with whatever the founders accommodate us in for. The relationship is more critical than the figure,” said Karan Shah, the OpenFX chief of staff who leads the new ventures unit.

“Portfolio companies will receive capital, connectivity to OpenFX’s markets, and early access to upcoming products and capabilities,” OpenFX said in a news release from London.

Shah said OpenFX investments began informally “about a year ago” as small checks to help friends, customers and vendors. At least two Miami fintechs have disclosed OpenFX as an investor in recent funding rounds: financial operating system Jeeves, which raised $110 million in September, and Cyclops, which raised $20 million in July to expand its platform for payments companies. Both use stablecoins in their growing international businesses.

OpenFX Ventures is targeting innovators building solutions in four main areas: next-generation applications; routing and clearing infrastructure; credit on the blockchain; and AI-native payment operations, Shah said.

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“Our belief is access/capital is concentrated; however, the best founders are distributed,” Shah wrote Refresh Miami by email from London. “We’re working with teams outside of typical hubs of San Francisco and New York City, ranging from Miami to Mexico City to Montevideo, Sao Paulo, London, Barcelona, Bangalore, Bangkok,” among others.

OpenFX has been making headlines this year amid rapid growth, partly through acquisitions. This summer, it acquired Miami-based startup Global Ledger to expand from cross-border payments into business banking accounts. As part of the deal, Global Ledger founder Tyler McIntyre joined OpenFX to head up its new multi-currency accounts.

In March, OpenFX raised a $94 million Series A round backed by Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction and other investors. The fintech venture launched in 2024, aiming to modernize foreign-exchange moves across borders with near-instant transfers powered by stablecoins. It has hubs in varied world regions, serving customers who move money internationally around the clock.

OpenFX recently set up a 3,500-square-foot office at Brickell City Tower in downtown Miami, which serves as its U.S. headquarters. The company employs more than 15 people in South Florida and plans to add staff in the area as it expands, according to Harrison Mann, who leads the company’s go-to-market efforts from Miami.

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Doreen Hemlock is a journalist who worked years with the South Florida SunSentinel newspaper and before that, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Peru, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. She holds an MBA from Columbia University, thanks in part to a Knight-Bagehot fellowship. Reach her at doreenhemlock@gmail.com.
Doreen Hemlock

 

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