BitGold Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based consumer-focused internet platform offering free global payments combined with access to secure, redeemable gold for savings, closed a $3.5 Series A financing round.
Backers included PortVesta Holdings, Soros Brothers Investments, PowerOne Capital, Sandstorm Gold, and other financial service professionals.
The company, which had raised angel financing from its co-founders in early 2014, allowing for the development and acquisition of key intellectual property and proof of concept, intends to use the new funds to finalize and launch its platform in Q1-2015.
Led by Roy Sebag and Josh Crumb, BitGold is advancing a platform to allow people around the world to acquire, store, and spend gold.
The company, which also has offices in Milan, Italy, is committed to best-practice systems for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations regarding Anti- Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC).
Commenting on the announcement, Sebag said: “Since my days as a professional investor I have wondered why there’s no easy way to own and spend gold in a legal, transparent, and tax-compliant manner.
“Technological breakthroughs in decentralized payment technologies such as the blockchain and ripple have created a historical opportunity to solve one of the main challenges preventing gold from being useful again in daily transactions. True gold ownership requires gold to be safely vaulted and stored, making it extremely difficult to spend, especially in micro-transactions. At BitGold, we solved this problem by developing a platform that is part gold exchange, part payments technology and part custodian, resulting in a powerful user experience that advances gold from a physical element to an instantly accessible unit of account and store of value for the internet, an operating system for gold“.
FinSMEs
24/12/2014