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Bitcoin services company Coinplug raises $5m Series B
Bitcoin services company Coinplug, Inc. has raised $5 million Series B in a round led by SBI Investment.
Founded in 2013 and based in South Korea, Coinplug offers a variety of Bitcoin services including fiat money to Bitcoin exchange, a Bitcoin wallet service, a Bitcoin prepaid card, two-way ATMs and merchant payment processing.
The company also provides APIs for their Bitcoin services giving third parties the ability to plug third party apps into Coinplug’s Bitcoin Ecosystem; the API’s provide various security policies and authentication methods to increase convenience and security of P2P payments through multiple platforms such as websites and app services.
Coinplug also operates a partnership with 7-Eleven that allows customers to purchase Bitcoin over the counter in South Korea, and is currently working with Visa, Inc. to a offer a BTC backed Coinplug debit card which will allow users to purchase goods and services anywhere Visa is accepted.
Patents
One area of growth Coinplug sees going forward is through Blockchain-related patents, which it is currently using in conjunction with the development of a Blockchain-based authentication service for the financial industry.
“In the future, Coinplug is planning on presenting a global remittance service,” Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ryan Uhr told Coindesk. “Also, we will focus on developing an efficient and competitive blockchain platform… and provide the platform for major banks in Korea.”
It’s an interesting company in terms of its range of services: on one hand, given the volatility of Bitcoin markets, there’s some justification for having services crossing various aspects of the growing market, but likewise the risk is that in doing so, Coinplug may end up being the master of none.
Including the new round, Coinplug has raised $8.3 million to-date. Previous investors include Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Bokwang Investment, Capstone Partners Korea, DSC Investment, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Key Initiatives Technical Entrepreneur and Silverblue.
The company said it would use the new round to “ramp up development of its Blockchain-based services.”
Image credit: Coinplug
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