Indian Bitcoin wallet provider Zebpay (Zeb Ventures Pte Ltd.) has raised $1 million Series A in a round that included Arjun Handa, CMD & VP of Claris Lifesciences, Ltd., and Amit Jindal, managing director of Jindal Worldwide, Ltd.

Founded in 2012 originally as BuySellBitco.in, Zebpay offers a mobile Bitcoin wallet that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin, store Bitcoin, along with the ability for those Bitcoins to be used to recharge mobile phone services and to buy eCommerce vouchers from sites such as Amazon, Flipkart, Makemytrip and more at a discount of up to 10 percent.

Uniquely Bitcoin wallets offered by Zebpay are tied to a mobile phone number versus a person’s identity, a move the company claims makes it more secure and easy to use, and the Bitcoins are 100 percent insured in case of theft; conversely, users are able to send Bitcoins to any mobile number worldwide, although naturally the end user would require a Zebpay account to redeem any Bitcoins received.

The company currently has over 25,000 users but is aiming to add 100,000 users to reach a total turnover of $75 million by the end of the year.

While Zebpay has Bitcoin at its core, the company is nonetheless keeping up with the times and has set up a dedicated Blockchain lab with a goal of leveraging the technology to provide authentication, authorization and proof of existence services, and is already working with a number of Indian government departments in building customized Blockchain solutions.

“Zebpay is all set to become the market leader in Bitcoin and Blockchain technology in India with a vision for bringing in revolutionary new solutions in the financial ecosystem and take this emerging technology to the masses,” Zebpay Cofounder Saurabh Agrawal said in a statement.

Emerging markets

Zebpay isn’t the first company we’ve seen over the past 12 months targeting emerging markets, but India is slightly different than most given it has the largest population of any country in the world, coming in at 1.253 billion.

While Bitcoin is little known in the country, mobile phones are as ubiquitous as they are in even the poorest of countries, and while India doesn’t lack for traditional banks and financial institutions, many of those remain out of reach for poorer citizens or those living in more remote parts of the country.

The potential is definitely there, and Zebpay appears well set up to tap into the opportunities the Indian market provides.

Including the new round, Zebpay has raised $1.3 million to date.

The company said it would use the new funding to ramp up innovation of its Blockchain-based services to further drive growth, including increasing their head count.

Image credit: Zebpay/ screenshot