Startup payments platform Mash has secured US$6 million in seed funding, co-led by Castle Island Ventures and Whitecap Venture Partners, and including other participatory angel investors. Mash leverages Bitcoin and the Lightning Network to enable flexible usage-based monetisation of digital apps, widgets, tools and online content for builders, creators and developers. This “remonetisation” aims to implement net-new business models to allow these creators to generate revenue for the valuable experiences they deliver, as well as providing consumers with a digitally-native waller to use anywhere. Mash will use the funds to build out and commercialise its Bitcoin and Lightning Network payments platform, as well as expand its engineering, marketing, sales and business development teams. Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, explains: “Online content monetisation is deeply broken today. As a scalable, data-efficient, and high-granularity system, Bitcoin’s Lightning Network is uniquely suited to solving this problem, and Mash employs it wonderfully. We have redoubled our commitment to Mash and look forward to continuing the journey with the team.” Following the funding round, Carter will join the Mash board of directors along with Russell Samuels, partner at Whitecap Venture Partners. Jared Nusinoff, founder and CEO of Mash, adds: “Bitcoin and Lightning are transformative, redefining money on a global scale, creating the perfect opportunity for us to change the fabric of all online experiences and unlock fundamentally new business models that reward and incentivise the proliferation of quality, trusted and high-value experiences.”
