San Francisco, Calif.-based Veem announced on Wednesday the raising of $25 million in growth funding led by an impressive list of companies, including Goldman Sachs (lead investor), GV (formerly Google Ventures), Silicon Valley Bank, Kleiner Perkins, Pantera Capital and others. The money adds to $26 million that Veem raised in Series B in March 2017, according to Sept. 26 company blog. The blockchain firm was founded in 2014 and is seeing skyrocketing growth. It's disrupting global bank transfers by offering faster, cheaper and blockchain-powered cross-border payments that compete with SWIFT's 40-year-old technology. More than half of transactions use Bitcoin (BTC) to connect customers' bank accounts with suppliers and vendors' accounts which enable more efficient fund transfers. "Veem has quickly gained traction with businesses around the world. The convenience, low cost, and speed of paying with Veem is drawing payees to come on the network and turn into payers," said Karim Faris, GV General Partner (Google Ventures). "The network effects are very promising and resulting growth is impressive."Consider Veem a major threat to Western Union, PayPal, MoneyGram and others who facilitate global money transfers. The company earns much of its revenue by integrating with services that small businesses already use, such as Quickbooks, Xero and Netsuite. "Our multi-rail payments platform ensures speed, security, and the lowest possible fees by finding the perfect route for any particular transfer," the firm posted on its blog. "Veem has also leveraged blockchain technology from the start. A transfer platform secured by distributed ledger technology, blockchain may ultimately be the future of international payments. Veem is on the front lines." Veem is seeing exponential growth. During its first funding, the company had 590 customers which grew to 18,000 as of March 2017. Veem now has 80,000 small businesses using its service in 96 countries. It shows the huge demand for businesses to send and receive payments around the world faster and more cheaply than traditional methods. Its success has attracted investments from a who's who of the finance world. "We’re thrilled to have Goldman Sachs lead our investment round. This funding will help us expand our footprint, increase our distribution and form new strategic partnerships," said Marwan Forzley, CEO and founder.In other news, The Financial Times reported that the Winklevoss twins' Gemini exchange is looking to expand into the United Kingdom. FT sources say the exchange may soon file an application with U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. Earlier this month, Gemini launched a regulated stablecoin that's pegged 1:1 with U.S. dollar. In March, Coinbase announced it had secured banking partnership with U.K.-based Barclays. More Brits are looking to invest in cryptos. A Sept. 2018 survey by Atomil found that 30% of Londoners plan to invest in cryptocurrencies, according to 1,503 respondents. The national average is 13%. Cryptos also appeal to a younger crowd. More than one-in-three (37%) of adults under 35 want to invest in cryptos while only 4% of people over 45 would do so. "Lucrative returns made by the early adopters of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been widely publicised. These early investors have been followed by others looking to make similar gains," according to company statement.