Bitwala, a Berlin, Germany-based crypto-first banking service, raised €13m in Series A funding.
The round was led by Sony Financial Ventures and NKB Group with continued participation from existing investors Earlybird and coparion.
The company intends to use the funds to to attract new customers, recruit talent, and start offering Bitcoin accounts for businesses.
Founded in 2015 by Jan Goslicki, Benjamin Jones and Jörg von Minckwitz, Bitwala offers a platform combining a regular bank account, a Bitcoin wallet, and
seamless bitcoin trading options. Customers can buy and sell bitcoin – whether online or mobile – with fast liquidity directly from their bank account, hosted by solarisBank, a German partner bank.
Bitwala charges a 1% fee for every bitcoin trade.
Customers in all 31 countries of the European Economic Area can access the benefits of a German bank account. Euro deposits up to €100,000 are protected by the German deposit guarantee scheme. Moreover, the account comes with a free debit Mastercard that can be used for contactless payments and free withdrawals at 40 million ATMs and POS’ worldwide.
Christoph Iwaniez and Philipp Beer joined the management team later.
The team currently consists of more than 40 employees.
FinSMEs
25/08/2019