ATLANTA, April 3, 2018 – BitPay, the largest global blockchain payments provider, today closes its $40 Million extended Series B funding round, which brings its total raised capital to over $70 Million. New investors in BitPay include Menlo Ventures, Capital Nine, G Squared, Nimble Ventures (an affiliate of Passport Capital) and Delta-v Capital as well as individual investments from Christopher Klauss Family Office, Founder of Internet Security Systems (ISS), and Alvin Liu, Co-founder of Tencent. Aquiline Capital Partners led the initial Series B Round but extended the round due to increased investor demand.
“BitPay had a record 2017 as we processed over $1 Billion in bitcoin payments. We brought on these new investors who can help BitPay scale globally to meet customer demand,” said Stephen Pair, BitPay CEO. “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.”
Menlo Ventures selected BitPay as its first institutional crypto investment after spending significant time researching the broader crypto and blockchain ecosystem. Menlo is committed to thesis-based investing, and prioritizes companies that are reshaping large and important markets through technology- and process-driven breakthroughs. Poised to profoundly change a rapidly evolving industry, BitPay 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. “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. As the market leading crypto-processor, BitPay is well positioned to both benefit from and serve the fast moving crypto-ecosystem.”
Asia is a growing region for BitPay and as a result a significant portion of the Series B investors are from this region. Capital Nine is an Asian fintech corporation and investor with millions of customers across Asia. Other investors from Asia include Alvin Liu, Co-Founder of Tencent, and Yong An Financial Holdings Co., Ltd
“bitcoin’s popularity is spreading rapidly throughout Asia and BitPay has an opportunity to extend its technology solutions across Asia,” said Sam Lin, Director of Capital Nine. ”BitPay’s cross-border payment solution helps businesses pay or receive international payments faster and more economically.”
Renowned security expert and technology entrepreneur Christopher Klaus founded Internet Security Systems (ISS), turning it into one the first large Internet security companies selling to IBM for $1.3 Billion in 2006.
“Security is extremely important to the blockchain network and BitPay,” said Christopher Klaus. “I have been watching the cryptocurrency space and believe BitPay is able to disrupt the financial services worldwide through payment processing and cross-border payments in large part because of the security built into blockchain.”
Hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world have signed up with BitPay to accept bitcoin payments, including popular brands like Microsoft, Newegg, Namecheap, Gyft, Takeaway, and Virgin Galactic. BitPay works with over 30 e-commerce and point of sale integrators to promote the use and acceptance of bitcoin. The BitPay Wallet consumer adoption is growing with a monthly average of more than $3 billion in transactions. In 2017, BitPay achieved record growth increasing revenues by nearly 700% and is profitable.
In 2014, BitPay raised a $30 million Series A round from investors including Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures, RRE Ventures and Sir Richard Branson.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures provides capital for multi-stage consumer, enterprise, and life sciences technology companies. Since 1976, the firm’s market-driven analysis has led to the identification of opportunities and successful investments in innovative markets. Notable areas of investment include Marketplaces (Uber, Rover.com, Breather, RealtyShares, Getaround); Consumer Services (Machine Zone, Tumblr, Betterment, Poshmark, Roku, Siri); Smart Cloud Infrastructure (Dropcam, 3Par, Avi Networks, Avere Systems, eero); SaaS (Carbonite, Signifyd, Clarifai, Overops, Usermind), Fintech (Betterment, Bluevine, RealtyShares); Cybersecurity (Cavium, IronPort, BitSight, vArmour, Dedrone); and Life Sciences Technology (Synthego, Cofactor Genomics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, 3T Biosciences). Menlo’s portfolio includes more than 70 public companies, and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions, with $5 billion under management. The firm is currently investing in Menlo Ventures XIV, a $450 million early-stage fund, as well as its $250 million Menlo Special Opportunity Fund, which targets early-growth investments.
About G Squared
G Squared is a premier growth-stage venture capital firm investing in the world’s leading companies across six megatrends: Cloud Computing and Big Data, Marketplaces, Mobility 2.0, New Age Media, Social Mobile, and Sustainability. G Squared acts as a unique transitional capital provider by making growth investments and providing liquidity to founders, employees and early investors as companies migrate from start-ups to global leaders. To date, G Squared has invested in 25+ companies including 23andMe, Alibaba, Coursera, Dropbox, Instacart, JAMF Software, Lyft, Palantir, Pinterest, Postmates, Snap, Spotify, and Twitter, among many others.
About BitPay
Founded in 2011, BitPay is the pioneer and the most experienced company in bitcoin and blockchain payments. Its suite of products enables businesses to send and receive cross border payments, and enables consumers to manage digital assets with the BitPay Wallet. The company has offices in North America, Europe, and South America and has raised over $70 million from leading investors including Founders Fund, Index Ventures and Aquiline Technology Growth.
Topics include:
— Music, blockchain and how they mix
— The modern music scene with tech changes
About the Guest:
– George Howard is the founder of GH Strategic; a boutique advising firm focused on defining and articulating clients’ authentic Purpose. Additionally, he is the Co-Founder of Music Audience Exchange and Chief Innovation Officer of Riptide Music Group. Prior to this he was the President of Rykodisc (the world’s largest independent record label), manager of Carly Simon, and original co-founder of TuneCore (the world’s largest independent music distributor). Via his consulting firm, Mr. Howard advises a wide-range of clients on how to integrate technology (including Blockchain) with strategy in order to increase awareness and revenue. A partial list of clients includes: Intel, National Public Radio, CVS/pharmacy, Easter Seals, Alticor/Amway, Ora, Inc., Townsend Energy, Comstar, Monegraph, Composer Mark Isham, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Wolfgang’s Vault, Brown University, Paste Magazine, The Estate of the Platters, Rednote, and Daytrotter. Mr. Howard is an Associate Professor of Management at Berklee College of Music, where he teaches courses in entrepreneurship, marketing, copyright law, and leadership. He is the 2014 recipient of the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Mr. Howard is a columnist for Forbes – for which he has authored numerous pieces on Blockchain technology – and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and numerous other publications. His most recent book is “Everything In Its Right Place: How Blockchain Technology Will Lead To A More Transparent Music Industry” Mr. Howard holds an MA, MBA, and JD.
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