Investment marks largest known capital raise to date in India’s fast growing Bitcoin space
TUMKUR, INDIA, AUG 11th, 2014 – Unocoin, India’s fastest growing Bitcoin service provider whose offerings include trading, merchant processing and storage of the digital currency, today announced a $250,000 investment from SecondMarket Founder Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Corp.The investment marks the largest known to date in India’s Bitcoin space as well as one of the largest investments made by BOC outside of United States.
Pioneered by SecondMarket founder and creator of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. has invested in more than thirty digital currency companies across the globe, including BitPay, CoinBase, Circle, Xapo, BitPagos, BitPesa and Volabit.
“I am thrilled for Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. to make its first investment in India’s fast growing bitcoin ecosystem,” says Barry Silbert. “As bitcoin awareness and adoption in India continues to accelerate, I’m confident that the Unocoin team will be successful in building one of the largest, most important bitcoin companies in India.”
One of the many socio-economic challenges that India faces is reaching the unbanked demographic which accounts for forty percent of the country’s urban population and sixty one percent of the rural population. India is also one of the largest recipients of remittances globally, totaling over $70 billion in 2013. Bitcoin technology has the potential to provide sustainable solutions and smarter financial options to all sectors of India.
“Unocoin is dedicated to bringing the advantages of bitcoin and its technology to India to enable people to seamlessly transfer monetary value at minimal cost. The investment and backing from the Bitcoin Hero has brought both the cheer and responsibility to our team. A good part of the investment will be spent on scaling up of Unocoin and its marketing efforts, while another part will be used towards regulatory compliance and security expenditures.” said Sathvik Viswanath, co-founder and Managing Director of Unocoin.
“We are also focused on helping small and medium businesses, freelancers and merchants accept Bitcoin for their products and services. To be able to successfully accomplish this in a country of a 1.2 billion people, we need the support of the best in business,” added co-founder and Head of Global Business Development, Vikram Nikkam. “We are honored to have Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. on board, working with Barry Silbert who has all it takes to facilitate the kind of growth and services we are looking to offer.”
Articles covered by publications:
http://www.coindesk.com/indias-unocoin-closes-250k-funding-deal-silbert-investment-fund/
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/barry-silbert-invests-in-indian-bitcoin-company-2014-8
http://www.bitcoinx.com/indian-bitcoin-startup-unocoin-raises-250000-in-new-fundraising-round/
https://my.news.yahoo.com/barry-silbert-latest-investment-more-221105800.html
http://newsbtc.com/2014/08/11/barry-silbert-invests-250000-unocoin-indian-bitcoin-start/
http://www.nextbigwhat.com/unocoin-funding-bitcoin-opportunity-corp-297/
