Coinbase teams up with Alviere for lineup of crypto offerings

[NEW YORK] Financial-technology startup Alviere is tapping Coinbase Global to add a lineup of crypto products to its platform.

The fintech will partner with Coinbase for custody and exchange of digital assets, with the offering rolling out first in the US, according to a statement on Thursday (Mar 24). New York-based Alviere plans to later introduce crypto in international markets.

Alviere has been building a platform to help businesses including auto-loan firms, such as AutoPayPlus, and cable companies offer financial products. It already allows its corporate customers to offer some banking services and debit cards. Now, after working since mid-2021 on the Coinbase partnership, Alviere will allow its customers to add crypto custody and exchange.

"We're looking to partner with them, and we're already partnering with them, to allow them to do everything that a neobank can do - that a challenger bank can do - including buy and sell crypto," Alviere co-founder and chief executive officer Yuval Brisker said in an interview. "The initial intent is really for us to be able to provide everything that any of one of the challenger financial institutions is doing."

The partnership is part of Coinbase's goal to make crypto a "mainstream financial option for individuals, companies and other organisations," said Guillaume Chatain, head of institutional sales and introducing brokers at Coinbase.

Brisker, who also founded TOA Technologies, later sold to Oracle, said the crypto offering is another step in Alviere's evolution. Eventually, the firm could beef up its lending services, but is currently focused on acquiring new customers and expanding its operations internationally, he said.

Alviere, backed by bank investors including Mitsubishi Capital, Cross River Bank Capital and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas, raised US$70 million in October. BLOOMBERG