While they may be called something different in every country, corner stores offer convenient access to snacks and beverages as well as phone minutes and remittances. The former CEO of a Pakistan-based payments company Brandon Timinsky wants to add stablecoins to the list of what these mom and pop businesses handle.
As stablecoins—a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a value in line with the U.S. dollar—become an increasingly integral option for settling cross-border payments, Timinsky wants to make it possible for people to exchange cash for crypto at any corner store with his company Zar. To do so, he has raised $7 million from Dragonfly Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and VanEck Ventures, with additional participation from Coinbase Ventures and the co-founders of the Solana blockchain, to launch Zar’s flagship service.
