Velocity, a new fintech infrastructure startup, just came out of stealth with a $10 million pre-seed round—Europe’s largest so far this year. The company is building what could become the backbone of enterprise finance in the age of stablecoins. The round was led by Activant Capital, with backing from Fuel Ventures, Triton Capital, Fabric Ventures, Commerce Ventures, and Preface Ventures. Velocity also attracted support from heavyweight insiders across Stripe, Visa, Google, PayPal, Circle, and Worldpay.
Founded by ex-Volt CEO Tom Greenwood and former Worldpay exec Eric Queathem, Velocity is taking a fresh approach to solving one of enterprise finance’s most frustrating problems: how to move, manage, and settle capital across fiat and digital assets, quickly and compliantly. Their mission? Not to disrupt the financial system, but to rebuild its infrastructure—making it faster, cheaper, and more flexible for today’s global businesses.
With a team of just 11 spread across London, New York, and Warsaw, Velocity plans to grow to 30 employees by year’s end. That growth will focus heavily on engineering talent and regulatory expertise, both essential in bridging traditional finance with the stablecoin-powered future.
From FX Headaches to Unified Capital Infrastructure
The idea for Velocity was born mid-flight—literally. Tom and Eric first connected during a trip to Money20/20. At the time, Tom was running Volt, a real-time payments company, while Eric led product and growth in crypto and international markets at Worldpay. A U2 concert ticket brought them together, but their shared frustration with slow FX settlements and clunky treasury systems sparked something bigger.
Both had been wrestling with the same inefficiencies: high foreign exchange costs, delayed settlements, and fragmented workflows. Over lunch in 2024, after stepping away from their previous roles, they realized that FX, stablecoins, and treasury weren’t isolated pain points—they were symptoms of deeper infrastructure gaps.
That lunch turned into a vision for a unified infrastructure layer that integrates stablecoins at the core of enterprise finance—not as a side tool, but as the foundation. That vision is now Velocity.
Enterprise-Ready, Not Crypto-First
Unlike many players in the stablecoin space, Velocity isn’t chasing crypto hype. It’s built from the ground up for enterprise adoption. Their platform enables businesses to move, hold, and manage capital in real-time across fiat and digital assets. The core innovation is a unified account architecture that combines virtual IBANs, secure wallets, and regulated custody, giving companies full visibility and control over their capital—whether it’s in a traditional bank or on a blockchain.
Velocity’s features go deep: programmable payments, smart FX routing, liquidity orchestration, and a real-time treasury ledger. This means CFOs and finance teams can automate vendor payments, manage global liquidity, and settle transactions instantly—all from a single platform that plays nicely with their existing systems.
It’s a sharp contrast to crypto-native platforms that often prioritize digital assets while overlooking the needs of large, regulated businesses. Velocity, instead, blends fintech pragmatism with blockchain innovation, meeting enterprises where they are and helping them scale into the future.
Why It Matters Now
Across the US, UK, EU, and Singapore, regulators are making room for stablecoins with clearer frameworks. That’s changing the game. As legal clarity grows, so does enterprise demand for compliant, stablecoin-based solutions that integrate with legacy systems. Central banks are warming to tokenized money. CFOs are done waiting on SWIFT wires. Real-time, programmable capital movement is becoming the new gold standard.
Velocity enters this moment with the tools businesses need to transition. The platform makes cross-border capital movement seamless, compliant, and programmable—solving for legacy pain points without forcing enterprises to abandon what already works.
Its approach has already won over high-profile backers. Activant Capital’s Andrew Steele said the company isn’t just solving payments but rethinking FX and treasury from the ground up. Fuel Ventures’ Shiv Patel, who backed Tom at Volt, called Velocity foundational infrastructure for the next era of finance. Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov added that enterprise-ready solutions like Velocity are exactly what the market now demands as stablecoin adoption accelerates.
Final Word
Velocity may only be at the start of its journey, but it’s already making waves with the largest pre-seed round of the year and a vision that directly tackles long-standing financial inefficiencies. With a platform purpose-built for enterprise needs, deep regulatory fluency, and a founding team that’s lived the pain firsthand, Velocity is well-positioned to shape the future of how global businesses manage and move money.
