A collection of technology and financial firms in China and the USA haVE made a $60 million investment to create a Chinese unit of Circle, a U.S.-based Bitcoin Blockchain-payments startup. “We are still in the early days of this global transformation in value exchange, but the barriers and boundaries are slowly dropping away, replaced with open protocols (e.g., Blockchain), and improved user experiences (e.g., messaging and social payments). The coming years will be exciting, transformative and no doubt challenging. We’re taking the long view and trying to build something that can help integrate the global economy and global consumers in the same way that the the internet of information and communications has brought the world together,” stated Circle Co-Founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville on their blog. The list of the investors includes Baidu, the Chinese search giant; CICC Alpha, a growth-investing unit of the China International Capital Corp.; the private-equity arm of China EverBright Investment Management Ltd.; CreditEase, an online lender owned by Yirendai, a Chinese financial services firm traded in the U.S., and IDG Capital Partners leading the round. “Circle’s powerful take on Blockchain-powered social payments has attracted leading financial institutions and consumer Internet companies in China who are throwing their support behind the company’s global vision for an open Internet of value exchange,” said Jim Breyer, Founder & CEO, Breyer Capital. “We are very happy to be part of the team and to support Circle in this next phase of growth and expansion.” “Jim (Breyer) has been a long-time business partner and a great personal friend of IDG Capital,” said Hugo Shong, founding general partner of IDG Capital. “Working together with Breyer Capital, IDG is very bold on Circle’s vision of Blockchain and social payment. Just like the success of Alipay and WeChat pay here in […]
