Zebpay, India's first mobile bitcoin company, has received about USD one million in series A funding.
Growth equity investor Arjun Handa (CMD and VP of Claris Life sciences) led the round along with other investors including Amit Jindal (Jindal Worldwide MD), the company said.
The company intends to utilise the fund to ramp up innovation of its blockchain based services (used to record bitcoin transactions in a secured manner) and talent acquisition to proliferate the reach of its simplest bitcoin wallet in India, it added.
Zebpay is a mobile bitcoin wallet that allows its over 25,000 users to buy, sell and store bitcoin and also use the digital currency to buy ecommerce site vouchers and recharge mobile talk time across India.
It aims to touch a Rs 500 crore turnover by the end of the year by adding one lakh users to its mobile app, the statement said.
Bitcoins are digital money that are generated and their value is determined based on their demand and supply.
"Governments worldwide have acknowledged the fact that blockchain technology has potential to disrupt current financial systems and are exploring ways to benefit from it. Even RBI, in its recent report on financial stability, has appreciated the strengths of the underlying 'blockchain' technology," Zebpay co-founder Saurabh Agrawal said.
Zebpay has set up a dedicated blockchain lab in order to leverage blockchain power to innovate authentication, authorisation and proof of existence.
It is working with a few government sections to offer innovative blockchain solutions which can save thousands of crores in redundant expenses, the statement said.
Previously called BuySellBitco.In, the company was started in 2012 by Mahin Gupta. It was rebranded to Zeb IT Service and its app as Zebpay in 2014.
