MoonPay acquires payment infrastructure start-up Meso

US-based crypto payments company MoonPay has acquired fintech start-up Meso for an undisclosed sum. 

Founded by Braintree alumni Ben Mills and Ali Aghareza in 2022, Meso offers API-based payment infrastructure that connects traditional banking systems to cryptocurrency networks, supporting multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana, while enabling direct purchases via debit cards and digital wallets.

With the acquisition, Mills, a former Venmo product chief who previously headed payments innovation at Solana, will now move to the position of senior vice president of product at MoonPay. Meanwhile, Aghareza will take on the role of chief technology officer at MoonPay, leveraging over six years of experience at PayPal.

MoonPay says the deal represents “a major milestone in our evolution to a global payments network connecting banks, card networks, stablecoins and blockchains under a unified regulatory framework, including MTLs, BitLicenses and MiCA approval”.

MoonPay currently holds 47 state Money Transmitter licenses in the US and, as of June, a BitLicense in New York. The company has also secured approval under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in Europe.

MoonPay CEO and co-founder Ivan Soto-Wright describes the Meso acquisition as “a turning point” for the company, stating: “We’ve built trusted ramps that brought millions into crypto, now we’re building the global network that will move money across every form and in every market.”

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The addition of Meso builds on the company’s previous acquisitions of Helio, a cryptocurrency payments platform for merchants acquired in January for a reported $175 million, and stablecoin API start-up Iron, snapped up in March. That same month, MoonPay also went on to secure a $200 million credit line with blockchain and digital asset-focused financial platform Galaxy.