Most Bitcoin users will be familiar with the concept of Abra. This digital wallet solution is based on Bitcoin. Its goal is to provide global money transfer solutions at a cheap rate and without any friction. So far, the company has been doing quite well for itself. More importantly, it recently raised another US$16 million in Series B funding to further expand the business.
More Funding for Abra
It is good to see Abra gaining some of the recognition it deserves. Disrupting the financial sector is no easy feat, but the company has been putting up a more-than-valiant fight so far. By allowing anyone in the world to become their own money transfer agent or even Bitcoin ATM, things have certainly evolved in a good direction. The company has seen a decent amount of initial success in certain regions, but there is always room for improvement.
Abra’s new round of Series B funding will certainly help it become a force to be reckoned with. Raising US$16 million in the first place is no easy feat, especially for a company closely associated with Bitcoin. While other Bitcoin-related companies have seen similar success in terms of funding over the past few years, Abra is not your regular exchange by any means.
Among the investors in this Series B round are Silver 8 Capital, Arbor Ventures, American Express Ventures, and HCM International. The latter name is pretty interesting, to say the least, as it is a subsidiary of Foxconn. American Express Ventures is also a fairly significant name on the list, as it shows that traditional financial players are keeping an eye on Bitcoin and blockchain technology as we speak. Strategic investments need to be made by any company looking to strike a profit later on.
All things considered, Abra has now received a total of US$35 million in funding from investors to date. That isn’t a small number by any means, even though it pales in comparison to some other players in the Bitcoin industry. Then again, Abra’s business model is a bit riskier compared to traditional exchanges. Then again, the money raised through multiple funding rounds will certainly help the company head in the direction they are looking in.
When it comes to the future of banking and digital payments, a lot of questions have yet to be answered. More specifically, there are many different approaches which seem to carry a lot of value right now. Abra is certainly on the list of contenders right now; otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to secure additional funding to begin with. Its decentralized network of consumer devices and merchants connected through an open-source blockchain is certainly paying dividends so far.
For the time being, it remains to be seen how the Abra team will use their new funding. Expanding into different regions seems a logical outcome, although nothing has been officially confirmed at this point in time. It will be interesting to see how this digital app affects the future of finance and banking as a whole. So far, things look rather promising, but there is still plenty of work yet to be done.
