“Bitcoin bank” Circle is betting big on China. The company has announced that it raised $60 million in a new Series D funding round led by Beijing-based investment firm IDG Capital, an existing Circle investor. The company also announced the opening of its Chinese subsidiary Circle China, which had been separately funded earlier.
Participants in the new Circle funding round include global venture capital and private equity firm, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst Partners and a group of Chinese firms including; Baidu, China International Capital Corporation ALPHA, China Everbright Limited, Wanxiang and CreditEase. Individual investors include Sam Palmisano, former CEO and chairman of IBM, and Glenn Hutchins, co-founder of private equity firm Silver Lake.
Circle now has a solid network of partners in the region, notably including technology giant Baidu.
“Circle is one of the most impressive startups in the blockchain technology space,” said Peter Fang, executive director of Baidu corporate development. “Together with other influential investors, Baidu is very excited to partner with Circle team to build its vision successfully and globally."
Circle co-founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire noted that the company is building a global payments network that will soon enable users in the U.S., Europe and China to exchange value seamlessly and nearly instantly.
“Today we announced two related milestones: a $60 million strategic financing from a syndicate of major Chinese strategic investors; and the formation of Circle China, a new Beijing-based company focused on bringing the benefit of open, global, blockchain-powered social payments to Chinese consumers,” said Neville and Allaire. “We want to connect consumers using dollars, pounds, euro and renminbi the same way that the web, email and other protocols have connected consumers globally.”
Circle China was formed six months ago as an independent Chinese company focused on bringing the benefits of open, global social payments to Chinese consumers, with […]
