A large-scale project launched by fintech giant Stripe and crypto-VC firm Paradigm has just made its first bet. On Friday, Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain, announced that it led a $25 million fundraising round for crypto infrastructure company Commonware. As part of the deal, the Stripe-backed project will work with Commonware to develop methods to process blockchain payments faster, Paradigm general partner and CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos said in a blog post.
Patrick O’Grady, founder of Commonware, declined to name other participants in the fundraising for his startup, which develops open source code to allow others to launch their own blockchains. O’Grady also declined to disclose his company’s valuation following the Tempo-led raise, but said it was a “significant increase” from Commonware’s seed round valuation, which Pitchbook reports at $63 million.
“Usage and distribution are much more important than money as a startup,” he said. Fortune. “If we can short-circuit that process and have a deep, multi-year relationship with a large team, instead of maybe raising a traditional seed round from a venture fund, that was the opportunity presented by Tempo.”
Fast payments
Tempo’s investment in Commonware isn’t its first dramatic move since Stripe and Paradigm officially unveiled the project in September. The payments-focused blockchain company has acquired crypto startup Ithaca and hired Dankrad Feist, a top researcher who helped develop the Ethereum blockchain. Tempo also increased its workforce from about five employees in August to between 40 and 50 today, according to a person close to the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private business information.
It’s rare for a startup to make an acquisition, major hire, and significant investment this early in its launch, but Tempo has the backing of some of the biggest names in tech and crypto. Stripe is a payments giant worth over $100 billion. Paradigm is one of the leading venture capital firms in the crypto space. And Tempo’s design partners include heavyweights like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Shopify.
The Stripe-linked startup also has a huge war chest. It has raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation from some of Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firms, including Thrive Capital, Greenoaks, Sequoia and Ribbit Capital, Fortune reported for the first time.
“We think they will do as good a job, if not better, of showing what Commonware can do than what we can do,” O’Grady, the Commonware founder, said in reference to Tempo.
Founded in 2024, Commonware has just seven employees (including O’Grady) and four customers, but it’s already profitable, he said. The company makes money by helping businesses deploy and interface with its open source software, and each customer generates on average more than $1 million in annual revenue. “We now have a number of people waiting who want to work with us,” O’Grady added.
