While the price of bitcoin continues to loom around the $7,000 range, Bitcoin payments seem to be holding strong in various parts of the world. In particular, emerging markets in Asia looking to facilitate low-cost payment solutions for cross-border commerce are benefiting from cryptocurrency transactions.
This has become apparent as
BitPay
, the largest global blockchain payment provider, just closed its $40 million extended Series B funding round. Notable new investors include
Menlo Ventures
,
along with a number of investors based in Asia like Capital Nine, an Asian fintech corporation. Other participants from the region include Christopher Klaus, the founder of
Internet Security Systems (ISS),
and Alvin Liu, co-founder of
Tencent
.
To date, BitPay has raised a total of over $70 million in capital. In 2014, BitPay raised $30 million in its Series A round from investors including
Index Ventures
,
Founders Fund
,
Felicis Ventures
,
RRE Ventures
and Sir Richard Branson.
“BitPay had a record 2017 as we processed over $1 billion in bitcoin payments. Since then, we’ve brought on new investors who can help BitPay scale globally to meet customer demand,” said Stephen Pair, CEO of BitPay. “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.”
Aquiline Capital Partners
initially led the Series B round but extended it due to increased investor demand.
“We were only planning to raise a $30 million round, but due to high demand, we extended the round to $40 million in January. Interestingly enough, this was also during the same time the price of bitcoin started to drop,” BitPay’s chief commercial officer, Sonny Singh, told
Bitcoin Magazine. “Moreover, this was also the first time Menlo Ventures has ever made an institutional crypto investment.”
BitPay now joins the Menlo portfolio alongside leading companies such as Uber, Betterment, Roku, BlueVine and Warby Parker.
“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,” said Tyler Sosin, a partner at Menlo Ventures, in a statement. “We are impressed with the company’s execution — it has demonstrated extremely efficient growth and a stickiness with merchants and consumers that is the hallmark of many great payment service providers.”
Why BitPay’s Funding Round Is So Impressive
The key factor behind the $70 million in capital raised has to do with the technology. Using Bitcoin as a form of payment, rather than as a trading asset, is revolutionizing B2B payments for cross-border commerce — particularly in Asia.
“Bitcoin’s popularity is spreading rapidly throughout Asia and BitPay has an opportunity to extend its technology
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