Raj Date-Led VC Firm Backs Align Commerce Seed Round
A diverse cast of investors has contributed to the most recent undisclosed seed funding round for blockchain-based, cross-border payments solution provider Align Commerce. Participants included more familiar names such as entrepreneur Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Corp, Adam Draper-led Boost VC and hedge fund Pantera Capital. The round also included traditionally payments-focused VC firms such as Bayhill Capital Management, NyCa Investment, Pivot Holding, Fenway Summer, R3 and the Whittemore Collection. Unsurprisingly, not all participants are new to the ecosystem. Fenway Summer, for....
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In April, Bitcoin Magazine reported that global payment provider Align Commerce launched a public beta of its payments platform, the first in the industry to use the Bitcoin blockchain transparently to enable faster and cheaper global payments. Transactions appear as traditional payments at both the sending and the receiving end, but Align Commerce pipes the transfer through the blockchain instead of using several intermediate banking relays, halving both time and cost of traditional international wire transfers. Now Align Commerce announced that it has raised a $12.5 million Series A....
Blockchain remittance startup Streami has closed a $2m seed funding round. Despite the startup's newcomer status, however, its backers to date include Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea's largest financial services providers. The bank committed ₩500m (roughly $427,000) to the funding round. Streami also drew support from Shinhan Data Systems, an IT entity within Shinhan; ICB, a payments firm known for working with Asian e-commerce giant Alibaba; venture firm Bluepoint Partners, and a group of angel investors. By targeting the Asian remittance market from South Korea to China, including....
Blockchain payments startup Align Commerce has raised $12.5m in Series A funding led by storied Silicon Valley investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Rounding out the all-star cast of investors were first-time and repeat firms including Digital Currency Group, FS Venture Capital, Pantera Capital, Recruit Ventures Partners and SVB Ventures, the investment arm of Silicon Valley Bank. Founded by Marwan Forzley, a former Western Union general manager, Align Commerce is seeking to disrupt the small business (SMB) cross-border payments market, one it believes is characterized....
Align Commerce, San Francisco-based Blockchain payments processor announced the closure of a Series A funding round on Tuesday, November 17, with $12.5 million led by Kleiner Perkins. This marks the first time Venture Capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has invested in a Bitcoin startup. Randy Komisar, KPCB general partner and co-founder of Claris Corp., who will also be joining Align’s board said: Align is a cross-border payments startup launched in January 2015 that allows its customers to use both traditional and blockchain financial opportunities for small and....
Nascent bitcoin exchange Coinsetter has completed over half of a $1m funding round by crowdsourcing from its early adopters. Last Monday, CEO Jaron Lukasiewicz sent an email to those who had already signed up for accounts at his exchange to ask if they would like to invest in the interim seed round. Lukasiewicz, who recently launched the public beta version of the exchange, originally secured a $500,000 seed investment in April from a group of angels including: Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, Roger Ver and Technology Entrepreneur Jimmy Furland, among others. He says: "We have....