MobileCoin Inc., a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency payments company focused on mobile devices, said today it has raised $66 million in funding to develop its payment system.

Numerous investors joined the Series B round including Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Berggruen Holdings, BlockTower Capital, General Catalyst and others. This round brings the company’s total funding to $107 million.

MobileCoin is a peer-to-peer driven payment system that provides near-instantaneous transactions over the phone. The technology is currently in beta for users of the privacy-focused messaging app Signal in the United Kingdom, which rolled out in April.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies, which can take minutes to “lock in” a transfer, MobileCoin takes seconds. For example, it takes the bitcoin network 10 minutes to record a block on its blockchain – and approximately six blocks to be certain the transaction is finalized. That isn’t great when trying to buy a slice of pizza or a coffee.

Using MobileCoin, transactions happen within seconds, which is on par with major payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard. That’s the power of putting payments right on the phone: speed and convenience.

Another important feature of the network is that it’s privacy-focused, the sender, receiver and transaction amount are all hidden from prying eyes. Only those involved in the transactions can see the information.

The service is also designed to be user-friendly. Even if merchants or customers lose their phones, MobileCoin was built so that their wallet will not be lost forever. Users can still recover their wallets.

Finally, MobileCoin complies with regulations such as anti-money-laundering and “know your customer” rules. That way merchants can be certain that they’re working with a reputable processor.

The company said it will use the funds to expand development of its products including services for merchants and e-commerce. They includes MOBot, the first cryptocurrency chatbot payment system to enable e-commerce payments within messaging apps.

The company is also in the process of creating what’s called a stablecoin, which is a type of cryptocurrency that’s value remains constant with the U.S. dollar. This is important because MobileCoin’s digital coin, MOB, can fluctuate in value. The stablecoin likely will be called MobileUSD.

Image: MobileCoin