Xapo Raises $20 Million from Greylock Partners, Index Ventures
Bitcoin security company Xapo has reportedly raised a whopping $20 million in Series A-1 funding from Greylock Partners and Index Ventures, we’re learning this Tuesday morning from various reports.
Other participants in the funding round included Jerry Yang (Yahoo! Inc. co-founder), Emergence Capital Partners, Max Levchin (PayPal co-founder), Yuri Milner.
The significant investment breaks a record in the digital currency space, effectively making Xapo the most invested in company operating in the space to date. Previous investors that poured in $20 million into the company include Fortress Investment Group and Ribbit Capital.
The company is said to be valued above $100 million at this point in time.
In addition to the investment, Reid Hoffman of Greylock and Mike Volpi of Index will be join as observers on the Xapo board.
“Looking ahead, we will continue to invest the funds in building our team and our suite of services,” Xapo CEO Wences Casares wrote on his company blog. “We are committed to developing the framework that allow bitcoins to be used by consumers in their everyday lives while also continuing to offer highly secure bitcoin storage for Wall Street funds, exchanges, and financial institutions handling bitcoins.”
“Throughout my career in consumer-focused financial technology, I have never experienced anything that has piqued the interest of the financial community – and my own – quite like bitcoin. I’m particularly impressed by how quickly the bitcoin ecosystem has started to evolve. It is clear that the industry is being led by a new generation of businesses, driven by experienced entrepreneurs focusing on security and usability and backed by world class venture capitalists like our investors,” he added.
The investment news is also accompanied with the news that the company is planning to launch their highly-anticipated bitcoin debit cards beginning later this month, which will allow users to spend their bitcoins as local currency like any other debit card.
The company says they’ve signed deals with financial institutions in the United States and Europe to make the cards work, but declined to reveal any names.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source[/textmarker] TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Xapo
