Digital Wallet Eco Notches $26 Million In a16z Crypto-Led Round

Digital wallet Eco has landed more than $26 million in an a16z Crypto-led investment round that saw the involvement of Slow Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Activant Capital, Founders Fund and over 100 others, according to a Friday (March 5) announcement.

“Eco puts your money back to work for you. It’s not a bank, checking account, or credit card — we’re building something better than all of those combined,” Eco CEO Andy Bromberg said in the announcement.

Users can earn as much as 5 percent yearly on their deposits through Eco, while also receiving 5 percent cashback on spending at “major merchants,” according to the announcement, which noted that Eco is also building functionalities to assist users with bill payments, peer-to-peer payments and more from one wallet.

The news comes as the Blackhawk team has discovered that mobile wallet adoption domestically in the U.S. increased to 55 percent from 38 percent usage among people polled pre-pandemic.

“As COVID-19 reshapes the perceptions and needs of digital payments, one of the significant shifts for our team here at Blackhawk Network has been working to further intensify the growth and adoption of digital payments and gifting, including the expansion of mobile wallets with our retail partners and consumers,” Brett Narlinger, head of global commerce for Blackhawk Network, previously said in the PYMNTS What Did You Change? eBook.

Separately, Dan Brames, executive vice president, head of North America merchant at FIS, previously told PYMNTS that the point-of-sale experience is evolving, moving in the direction of a hybrid of physical store shopping with a complete complement of digital offerings. And that’s opening the doors for digital wallets.

It’s been broadly discussed that the pandemic has sped up the migration to digital channels to get things accomplished. That’s especially true of mobile wallets — and especially in-store where purchases are made. As there were a host of payment options, digital wallets struggled before the pandemic. But the transition to digital wallets certainly has increased.

Approximately two-thirds of bridge millennials (33 to 43 years old) are linked to their digital, mobile devices and have harnessed them to effect in-store purchases.