- Scores of new investors in BitPay with raised capital exceeding $70m
- Still looking to expand into emerging markets in Asia
BitPay, the world’s largest blockchain cross-border payments provider, has hit the headlines for a second time this week with news that it has closed a USD $40m (AUD $52m) extended Series B round.
Earlier this week, the company announced that it had added a second cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash, to its bitcoin-only offerings. With the Series B round, it has now raised capital exceeding USD $70m (AUD $91m).
New investors backing the company include Menlo Ventures, Capital Nine, Delta-v Capital, G Squared and Nimble Ventures. Individual investors also pitched in, including Alvin Liu (Co-founder of Tencent) and Christophe Klauss Family Office (Founder of Internet Security Systems).
The initial Series B round was led by Aquiline Capital Partners, but they decided to extend it as a result of rising investor demand.
Commenting on the development, BitPay CEO Stephen Pair said: “BitPay had a record 2017 as we processed over $1bn in bitcoin payments. We brought on these new investors who can help BitPay scale globally to meet customer demand.
“Our goals include key hires in engineering and regulatory licensing, as well as expansion into emerging markets in Asia – one of BitPay's fastest-growing regions for transactions and wallet adoption.”
For Menlo Ventures, BitPay is the first cryptocurrency business it has invested in, and the decision followed extensive research into the wider blockchain and crypto ecosystem. Menlo is known to be a cautious “thesis-based” investor, researching deeply and prioritising new businesses that are remoulding important markets via tech and process-driven innovations. It views BitPay as a powerful new disrupter which is poised to change a fast-evolving industry. The international money transfers company now joins leading firms in Menlo’s investment portfolio, including Betterment, BlueVine, Roku, Uber and Warby Parker.
Menlo Ventures partner Tyler Sosin explained: “We gravitated towards BitPay because we felt the company had identified a killer use for crypto in facilitating low-cost payment solutions for cross-border commerce and B2B payments, which is a massive market poorly served by the existing payment rails.”
He went on to say that Menlo was impressed with BitPay’s extraordinarily efficient growth and its “stickiness” with consumers and merchants – the hallmark of many great cross-border payments providers. Now the market-leading crypto-provider, Sosin added, BitPay is well-placed to both serve and benefit from the rapidly-evolving crypto-ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the acclaimed cybersecurity virtuoso Christopher Klauss, who founded Internet Security Systems (ISS) and steered it into becoming one of the world’s biggest internet security firms (it was sold to IBM for USD $1.3bn in 2006), noted that he’d been drawn to BitPay due to its deep concern for security, something that was vital for the entire blockchain network. He explained that he’d been monitoring the cryptocurrency space and reached the conclusion that BitPay is capable of disrupting financial services across the world through its international money transfer and payment processing technology, chiefly because of the high levels of security engendered by blockchain.
BitPay now boasts hundreds of thousands of business signups worldwide. Names include prominent brands such as Microsoft, Virgin Galactic, Takeaway, Gyft, Newegg and Namecheap. It’s currently working with over 30 point-of-sale and ecommerce integrators to advance the acceptance and use of bitcoin, while consumer adoption of its BitPay Wallet is rapidly expanding. The eWallet now has a monthly average of USD $3bn in transactions.