Bitcoin remittance company Abra is one of five startups working with blockchain technology to be accepted into the latest financial technology program operated by California startup incubator Plug and Play.
Abra, BlockNotary, BlockSeer, Skuchain and Token are the blockchain startups set to take part in the program, among a total of 23 participants.
Startups in the initiative will take part in mentoring sessions and pilot programs over the course of the three-month initiative.
The incubator draws support from a number of firms involved with blockchain-services or consortia devoted to exploring applications of the technology, including BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, MUFG, Santander, Sumitomo, TD Bank, USAA and US Bank.
Scott Robinson, founder and director of Plug and Play FinTech, said in a statement: "With our latest additions of globally leading financial institutional partners, our ecosystem continues to scale with opportunities for growth on behalf of our startups both in Silicon Valley and in markets across the world." The selection of blockchain startups in the latest Plug and Play batch reflect the different use cases currently being explored for the technology. These include cross-border remittances, file notarization and trade finance. 1. Abra
Abra leverages blockchain technology to merge money transfer and payments via a digital cash wallet that works globally. As with other digital currency wallet services, there is no bank or other institutional third party involved in managing, storing, sending or accepting funds.
Abra seeks to enable the purchase and storage of digital currency directly on the smartphone. The startup gets around the issue of lack of local exchanges in many parts of the world by building a network of so-called ‘tellers’ that will exchange users’ digital currency for cash.
The firm closed a $12m Series A round , and has raised $14m in capital to date. 2. BlockNotary BlockNotary’s ‘proof-of-existence’ app is […]
