UPDATED 01:56 EDT / OCTOBER 10 2016

NEWS

Indian bitcoin wallet provider Zebpay raising $4-5M Series B round

Indian bitcoin wallet provider Zebpay (Zeb Ventures Pte Ltd.) is said to be in talks to raise a $4-5 million Series B round.

According to reports, the company is talking to a number of Indian investors along with “a US-based venture capital fund which focuses on blockchain technology.”

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.

It differs itself from tradition bitcoin wallet providers by tying their wallets to mobile phone numbers, a move that is claimed to make payments more secure and easy to use. The company has continued to grow and is now said to 130,000 users, up from 25,000 users in January and is adding 20,000 new users each month. The company was reported to have passed the $10 million a month mark in September.

Bitcoin interest

News that Zebpay is raising a new round follows a $1.5 million round raised by bitcoin fintech startup Unocoin Technologies Private Limited at the end of September, a round that was noted at the time as the highest amount ever raised for a digital currency venture in Indian history.

The growing interest in bitcoin startups in India is being led primarily by United States investors looking for opportunities in developing markets, with Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bnk to the Future, Bitcoin Capital and FundersClub all having invested in Unocoin.

Zebpay’s first round came from two individual investors, but with a U.S.-based venture capital fund that focuses on blockchain technology said to be in talks to participate in the round, the list of investors in Unocoin provides clues. Bnk to the Future and Digital Currency Group are the most likely of the companies given their already diverse investments in developing markets.

It’s not clear when the round may be settled.

Image credit: azwegers/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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