Former SpaceX and X employees raise $9 million for Standard Economics, a platform for the unbanked

Evan Jones first encountered the burdensome world of cross-border payments when he tried to send money to his parents in rural Ireland, encountering steep fees and slow processing times. After learning that the problem is even more pronounced for people who live in developing countries and often lack banking services, he decided to create Standard Economics, a startup designed to erase the hassle typical of international payments.

On Tuesday, Standard Economics announced it had raised $9 million in seed funding in a round led by the crypto venture firm Paradigm, with participation from Lightspeed and strategic angel investors. The startup plans to use the money to build out its app, which it describes as a one-stop shop where people around the world can send cross-border payments, or remittances, as well as access U.S. dollars through stablecoins. Jones declined to disclose the company’s valuation. 

“Our product is built to work globally and designed for people traditional finance overlooks,” Jones said. “Our goal is to make it possible for anyone on earth to access money … and to make it unbelievably easy to use this product.”

Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar, are the buzziest technology in crypto at the moment. Congress passed legislation this summer to regulate the technology, and