# Circle

> Circle is a VC fund in Boston backing Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. See 76 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Boston, United States
- Total investments: 76
- Last investment: Jul 2026
- Lead investor: 29%
- Last fund: Nov 2021
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/circle-internet-financial
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/circlepay
- Website: https://www.circle.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/circle

Circle is a financial technology company that develops and manages digital currencies and blockchain-based financial infrastructure. It issues USD Coin (USDC) and Euro Coin (EURC), both fully backed stablecoins designed for global payments and digital transactions. Circle's platform supports businesses in integrating stablecoins into theiroperations, including cross-border payments and financial applications. Through the Circle Payments Network, it enables real-time settlement for financial institutions using USDC and EURC.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Circle. Shizune tracks 22 team members at Circle. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/circle-2?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $1.3M–$16M |
| Series A | $8M–$60M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Blockchain | 35 | 46% |
| Cryptocurrency | 29 | 38% |
| FinTech | 19 | 25% |
| Financial Services | 19 | 25% |
| Web3 | 13 | 17% |

69 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 30 | 39% |
| Grant | 18 | 24% |
| Series A | 7 | 9% |
| Funding Round | 6 | 8% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 5 | 7% |

10 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 29 | 38% |
| United Kingdom | 6 | 8% |
| Singapore | 5 | 7% |
| Switzerland | 2 | 3% |
| Brazil | 1 | 1% |

21 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Li Fan | Chief Technology Officer | 5 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/li-fan-2 |
| Mohammed Urfan | Founder | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mohammed-urfan |
| Aaron Kellner | Director | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/aaron-kellner |
| Ali Ahsan | Senior Product Manager | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ali-ahsan |
| Conrad Voorsanger | Head of Ventures Ecosystem | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/conrad-voorsanger |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ethereum Institutional | Ethereum Institutional is a non-profit organization that focuses on increasing institutional use of the Ethereum ecosystem, including its Layer 2 networks and applications. The organization provides institutional education and engagement for banks, asset managers, custodians, fintechs, market infrastructures, and public institutions evaluatingEthereum. It produces neutral research explaining how Ethereum works, its development roadmap, and its implications for institutional users. Ethereum Institutional also coordinates ecosystem marketing around ETH and real-world deployments to inform institutional strategies. In addition, it gathers industry requirements for tokenization, custody, and settlement on Ethereum and convenes events where institutions and Ethereum ecosystem stakeholders can discuss priorities and implementation approaches. |  | Seed | Jul 29, 2026 |  |
| Cyclops.io | Cyclops.io is a team of serial entrepreneurs with backgrounds from Cisco, Nuance, Bessemer Venture Partners, MIT, Caltech and Harvard. They have an extensive background in online video and collaboration, machine vision and deep learning. Their mission is to replicate the feeling and collaborative richness of being in the same room. It could be usedinternally by distributed teams or by sales or customer service with customers or partners. Everything should be as simple as a click. They are constantly looking for ways to improve your experience. Stay tuned for new and exciting features. | $20M | Series A | Jul 15, 2026 |  |
| Arrel Technology | Arrel provides non-custodial digital asset infrastructure that enables banks, fintechs, PSPs, brokers, and asset managers to launch and scale digital asset products.Its unified infrastructure connects: [Custodians]: Fireblocks and other trusted partners [Compliance]: Chainalysis for KYT/AML, Sumsub for KYC/KYB[Liquidity and trading venues]: 15+ exchanges and institutional liquidity providers [Blockchains]: 10+ major chains for wallet creation and management [Stablecoins] Seamless integration with major stablecoins (USDC, EURC, USDT) for payments, settlement, and treasury operationsThrough API and turnkey solutions, Arrel integrates advanced business logic to simplify and accelerate deployment, including: [1] Multi-venue trading and liquidity aggregation [2] Multi-chain non-custodial wallet management (MPC, SOC2-audited) [3] Automated treasury and fiat withdrawals [4] Counterparty risk control and FX management [5] Governance, audit, and user administration tools [6] Full compliance monitoring and reporting By consolidating all these capabilities into one layer, Arrel enables institutions to move faster, reduce operational and regulatory risk, and scale securely in the digital asset economy. |  | Grant | Jun 19, 2026 |  |
| Agridex | Agridex offers a blockchain-based supply chain platform for the digital agriculture industry. |  | Grant | Mar 23, 2026 |  |
| Blockradar | Blockradar helps fintechs offer stablecoin wallets and payments through simple APIs without needing deep blockchain knowledge. |  | Grant | Mar 23, 2026 |  |
| Myaza | Myaza lets users send money across Africa instantly, with AI-powered tools, virtual USD cards, and support for 100+ currencies. |  | Grant | Mar 23, 2026 |  |
| Hurupay | Hurupay is a Digital Wallet that enables Individuals in Africa to access Stablecoins for Savings, Payment and Cross-Border Money Transfers. |  | Grant | Mar 23, 2026 |  |
| Kantin | Kantin is an AI-driven platform connecting brands with creators for automated influencer marketing campaigns. |  | Grant | Nov 05, 2025 |  |
| Locker | Locker helps individuals and businesses swap tokens, bridge chains, save automatically, split funds, and leverage a plugin-SDK for wallets. |  | Grant | Nov 05, 2025 |  |
| Sorbet | Sorbet is a fintech platform designed to help freelancers, startups, and small businesses manage global payments and financial workflows. The platform combines traditional currencies and stablecoins so users can receive and send money across borders more easily. |  | Grant | Nov 05, 2025 |  |

10 of 76 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Coinbase Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/coinbase-ventures) — VC Fund, 9 deals together
- [Race Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/race-capital) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Circle Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/circle-ventures-5201) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [ConsenSys](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/consensus-systems) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Polychain](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/polychain-capital) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [1kx](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/1kx) — VC Fund, 4 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Circle invest in?

Circle invests primarily in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and FinTech startups, most often at Seed and Grant stage. Most of the 76 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Circle's check size?

Circle typically joins rounds of $1.3M–$16M at Seed and $8M–$60M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Circle participates in.

### How do I contact Circle?

Public channels for Circle include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Circle?

The team at Circle includes Li Fan (Chief Technology Officer), Mohammed Urfan (Founder) and Aaron Kellner (Director), among 22 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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