BitPay closes record $30 Million funding round

Bitcoin payment service provider BitPay has closed a record $30 million series A funding round.

After rumored to be closing a funding deal late last week, BitPay official announced the closing of the investment round resulting in a total of $32.7 million invested in the firm to date. The investment round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Horizons Ventures, Founders Fund, Felicis Ventures, RRE Ventures, TTV Capital, Sir Richard Branson, and AME Cloud Ventures, and resulted in the largest investment ever to be put into a Bitcoin related company.

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“Bitcoin is a borderless and frictionless payment system, which is nearing a tipping-point moment in terms of merchant adoption. Unlike existing payment technologies such as credit cards, with their high fees and risk of fraud and chargebacks, Bitcoin was designed for the Internet age, offering companies a lower-cost, lower-risk alternative,” said BitPay co-founder Tony Gallippi.

The new funding will be put towards global expansion, most notably in development. The firm will be adding 70 new available positions shortly. Along with the additional positions being made available BitPay’s managerial staff will see some changes. CTO and Co-Founder Stephen Pair will be taking over for Tony Gallippi as CEO, while Gallippi will take the position of Executive Chairman.

Investment leader Index Ventures posted to its blog an entry titled “Payment without border: Why we’re backing BitPay” to which they stated that their excitement for Bitcoins is based on its ability to provide a digital means of payment for the quickly growing online world which has reached 3 billion people.

BitPay processes over $1 million in daily Bitcoin payments and supports over 30,000 merchants which include TigerDirect.com and Zynga.

SOURCE: Digital-Currency Magnates