Kima, a payment firm, has successfully raised $5 million in pre-seed funding through a combination of equity and token rounds, bringing its total funding to $8 million.

Leading the equity round were Blockchange and FinSec Innovation Lab, a research and development accelerator associated with the payment giant Mastercard, along with participation from several angel investors. In addition, support for the token fundraise came from Outlier Ventures, Blockchange, Big Brain Holdings, Castrum Capital, Kangaroo Capital, and Maven Capital.

Kima specializes in building a web3 decentralized settlement protocol that serves as a bridge between traditional financial services like fiat bank accounts and credit cards, and decentralized finance (DeFi) tools.

The raised funds will be utilized to onboard more institutions, payment platforms, and cross-chain decentralized applications. Additionally, Kima plans to allocate resources towards enhancing its research and development capabilities, strengthening its finance arm, and streamlining regulatory processes.

Eitan Katz, co-founder and CEO of Kima, expressed enthusiasm about the funding rounds, emphasizing the company's commitment to overcoming traditional barriers and fostering interoperability between different ecosystems. He stated, "These funding rounds fuel our ongoing efforts to achieve what was once considered impossible — bridging the gaps between traditional systems and the blockchain space, on-chain. They will enable us to enhance and expand our ecosystem, ushering in real inter-ecosystem interoperability for the first time."