Atlanta, Georgia-based BitPay has announced today that they have managed to raise a whopping $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures.
Joining Index in the round is Horizons Ventures, Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures, RRE Ventures, TTV Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, and even Sir Richard Branson of the numerous Virgin enterprises in operation today.
The amount brings the total amount of investments made in the company to $32.7 million, with venture capital coming from London, Geneva, New York, San Francisco, and as far east as Hong Kong.
In addition to the huge investment — the largest of its kind in the bitcoin realm as it were — Jan Hammer of Index Ventures will join the BitPay Board of Directors. Angel investor Jimmy Furland will also be joining the company’s board.
“Bitcoin has emerged as the Internet’s payment system of choice and is now a core building block of the future global economy,” said Hammer. “By enabling thousands of merchants to accept payment in bitcoins quickly, safely and seamlessly, BitPay is already the proven and trusted winner in this space. Tony, Stephen and the team have achieved a fantastic amount with scant resources, and the combination of the huge market opportunity, the quality of the talent and this fresh injection of capital, will surely propel them to success on a global scale.”
Big business
BitPay is now processing about $1 million daily in bitcoin payments across a base of 30,000 merchants who have come to rely on the company’s services.
Fifty percent of those merchants are based here in the United States, and thirty percent in Europe.
Popular businesses that rely on BitPay include electronics retailer TigerDirect, WordPress, and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture.
Moving forward
The investment will allow BitPay to continue is global expansion and effectively triple their workforce by adding 70 jobs across locations in San Francisco, Atlanta, Buenos Aires, and Amsterdam.
BitPay says the majority of new positions they create will be developer roles who will work for company co-founder Stephen Pair.
“We are active in the Atlanta community focused on innovative financial services technology and believe the financial industry is the foundation of all commerce,” said Gardiner Garrard, who co-founded and serves as Managing Partner at TTV Capital. “We see BitPay playing a key role in the future of electronic payments and paving the path for digital currency bitcoin.”
Other notable investments in the bitcoin realm include Circle Internet Financial’s recent $17 million funding and Bitstamp’s recent $10 million funding.