Align Commerce Uses Bitcoin To Facilitate Cross Border Payments, Raises $12.5 Million In Series A Funding
Align Commerce, a San Francisco, Calif. -based cross-border payments service provider that exchanges a payer's fiat currency into bitcoin, then exchanges it into the payee's currency, has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to today's Wall Street Journal. Align Commerce's money transfer model avoids the "cumbersome" bank wire process for payments, according to CEO Marwan Forzley, who started the company after serving as general manager at Western Union. The company can also offer features like tracking fund movement in real time and....
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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 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....
Simplifying cross-border payments for businesses can not be achieved through traditional financial infrastructure; that much is clear by now. In countries where there are limited to no financial services available, there is no adequate infrastructure to speak of. Blockchain technology can help resolve that problem, and Align Commerce is banking big on this innovative form of remittance. It was only a matter of time until multiple businesses started to recognize the potential offered by blockchain technology.With the financial sector prone to disruption and innovation in its current state,....
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....