You can also read our announcement in various publications here: Techcrunch, Tech In Asia, Yahoo! news, e27, Backscoop, Deal Street Asia, Kr Asia, Robots, Clayton Country Register
Sending money across countries continues to be a challenge. Problems include high fees, slow money movement, large markups on exchange rates or confusing experiences.
At Parallax, we aim to fill this gap and tackle this opportunity, giving a fast, affordable and simple global payment experience.
Our journey began with a unique blend of vision and heritage. I, Mika Reyes, co-founder and CEO was born and raised in the Philippines, and am friends with various remote workers and freelancers complaining about their challenges receiving payments from abroad. I even experienced the problem myself while moonlighting as a freelancer and content creator, and when sending money home abroad as an immigrant. I wanted to solve my problem and help my friends, as well as Filipinos from my home and many others from developing markets get paid their hard-earned money in affordable, fast and reliable ways.
Simultaneously, my co-founder, Alex, and I deeply understood innovative ways to bring the current financial system up to speed with the times through modern technology. We were collaborating closely with contractors and freelancers who wanted and preferred to get paid in stablecoins given the speed and affordability. But the barrier for mass adoption is in making the technology accessible and more user-friendly. We found this gap to be a massive opportunity.
Parallax provides faster (near instant) and cheaper (saves 83% in fees; with the mid-market exchange rate) international payments. We’re focused on providing freelancers, remote workers and other global professionals better payments for their recurring payroll, invoices and salaries.
Parallax’ initial product allows users who are outside of the U.S. to open a USD virtual account to receive USD with just their passport. We can support and onboard individuals from 150+ countries.
Today, we announce our fundraise and also introduce the ability to convert USD into local currencies, starting with a few select countries and rolling out to more currencies soon. For example, in the Philippines, users can cash out their USD into their local bank accounts like BPI, UnionBank, BDO and more, or e-wallets like GCash or Paymaya, and have the pesos arrive in minutes.
The product is comparable to Paypal, Payoneer and Wise, and differentiates on providing faster and lesser fee transactions as we leverage modern technologies.
Our inception story began in the Philippines, a market we know well, have a unique advantage in and with a growing demand of global financial services given the rise of remote work, freelancers and the gig economy. The Philippines has the highest y/y growth rate for remote work revenue at 208% and is the 5th top freelancing country, according to Payoneer.
However, Parallax’ opportunity and current reach doesn’t stop there. We have organic interest from other countries in Latam and Africa who are receiving USD payments, with zero marketing spend. The product is able to support users from 150+ countries and will expand rapidly to tackle the larger $21 trillion global cross-border payments market.
Parallax raised $4.5M from Dragonfly Capital (lead), Circle Ventures (issuers of USDC), General Catalyst, gumi Cryptos Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Comma Capital, Firsthand Alliance and angels like Balaji, Zach Abrams former Head of Product @ Brex/Coinbase, and other founders and operators at various fintech companies.
The funding will be used to continue to grow the team and scale our operations, tackling this $21 trillion cross-border opportunity.
We're only getting started. Onboard and try Parallax today at app.withparallax.com.
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