Bind ERP, the leading cloud-based ERP for SMBs in Mexico, receives an investment from a consortium of venture capital funds

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As SMBs look for low upfront costs, quick deployment times and intuitive processes in a software, Bind ERP brings them the best administrative solution

 

Mexico City, October 24, 2017Bind ERP (www.bind.com.mx), a Mexico-based company offering a cloud-based ERP, closed its Series A round with venture capital funds IGNIA, Capital Invent and Avalancha Ventures.

 

For the more than one million SMBs in Mexico using the internet for their daily activities (with that number expected to double in the next 5 years), having access to a world class cloud-based ERP will permit them to gain greater insight into their business and make decisions based on real-time information. Bind allows SMBs to have an administrative system in the cloud to manage every aspect of their business from purchasing and inventory to accounting and sales.

 

“Millions of Mexican SMBs are looking to make their businesses more efficient to grow. Traditional ERPs have high upfront cost with long on-boarding times, making them hard to access for SMBs. Bind ERP is a low cost, easy to use and tailor-made solution that is accessible to hundreds of small businesses. We are excited to partner with the talented team behind Bind and to support the company through its future growth,” commented Fabrice Serfati Magaña, Managing Director at IGNIA.

 

“We share with Alejandro and his team the mission to ease the management tasks for SMBs, as we believe they are a key element for the economic development of Mexico. In Capital Invent we are very excited to partner with this team and we will be working with them to make Bind the leading ERP for SMBs in México,” said Jana Boltvinik, Managing Partner at Capital Invent.

“At Bind ERP, we are on a mission to make management easy for SMBs. Our team has a profound understanding of their needs and we’ve built a solution that allows them to take full control of their business within minutes. This funding will allow us to accelerate our growth and create new features that will transform the way small businesses operate in Mexico. We’re thrilled to have a group of investors who share our desire to help Mexican SMBs thrive,” states Alejandro Bonilla, CEO and Founder of Bind ERP.

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Startupbootcamp FinTech in Latin America unveils new collaborations with HSBC Mexico and IGNIA

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The subsidiary in Mexico of the global bank HSBC and IGNIA, a leading venture capital fund in Mexico,  commit to regional FinTech innovation through a partnership with Startupbootcamp FinTech program in Latin America.

 

Mexico City, September 14th, 2017 – Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico, the leading global accelerator focused on financial services innovation, announces two new collaborations: the Mexican subsidiary of HSBC and a leading venture capital fund in Mexico, IGNIA. Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico City is a joint venture between Startupbootcamp and Finnovista – the leading champion of FinTech innovation in Latin America – and is the first program of its kind in Latin America, addressing the needs of the region.

The involvement of both organizations endorses their commitment to innovate and disrupt financial services across Latin America. HSBC Mexico has joined the program as a corporate partner and IGNIA as an investment partner for the startups in the program.

HSBC Mexico and IGNIA will enhance the program’s corporate support, joining Visa, Fiinlab powered by Gentera, BanRegio, EY México and White & Case.

“We are very excited to welcome HSBC Mexico and IGNIA onto the program. The collaboration with HSBC Mexico will bring expertise to the entrepreneurs in creating global financial solutions, and by working with IGNIA, the startups will gain support on growing their businesses. Having these two organizations join us, in addition to our five previous partners and our global network, is a step forward in turning our startups into regional financial leaders.”, says Eduardo Morelos, Program Director of Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico City.

“We truly believe that the collaboration of HSBC Mexico with entrepreneurial talent in the Fintech ecosystem will promote the development of innovative solutions, thus benefiting our end consumers and provide them with financial services and products that improve both access and user experience,” says Juan Carlos Espinosa, Director Digital Strategy and Innovation of HSBC Mexico.

“In Mexico, we see a huge opportunity within the financial services space which can be leveraged through FinTech startups, and we think both Finnovista and Startupbootcamp FinTech have positioned themselves as leading organizations in driving the Fintech ecosystem forward”, says Álvaro Rodríguez, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA.

Initially, the first generation of Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico City was made up of nine startups: Dapp, Dile, Dinerio, Flink, Friendly Transfer, Mensajea, PayIt, Tesseract and Übank. Just before the program began, two startups were added: Bdeo, a Spanish solution that offers a new standard of expertise based on real-time connection between all actors involved in a disaster, and Konsigue the first Mexican crowd-factoring platform.

These last projects contribute two further areas of focus to the program: technology in the insurance industry and crowdfunding.

The 11 startups come from from two continents and five countries, and since July 17th until October 12th co-habit at Finnovista Loft, the FinTech entrepreneurship center in Mexico City managed by Finnovista. This space aims to promote the city as a global FinTech hub.

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Nuvem Shop raises $7MM to accelerate SMB e-commerce growth in Latin America

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With e-commerce sales in Latin America expected to surpass the US$50 billion dollar mark in 2017, Nuvem Shop (https://www.nuvemshop.com.br) has secured US$7 million in series B funding to allow small and medium sized businesses to seize this opportunity.

The company provides merchants with an omnichannel e-commerce platform. Using top notch technology, customers can sell their products through their own online stores – through both mobile and desktop channels – customized with their unique brand identity, and access marketing and data analytics tools. The Nuvem Shop platform is integrated with major local payment gateways and fulfillment services, making it easy for merchants to offer credit card processing, offline payment methods (still very commonly used in Latin America), same day shipping, door to door shipping and other logistics services. Moreover, Nuvem Shop allows business owners to sell their products through the main online marketplaces of the region, providing their customers with additional sales channels to develop their businesses.

E-commerce sales in Latin America are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% between 2014 and 2019, reaching US$85 billion by the end of the forecast period. Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are the three largest e-commerce markets in the region. Nuvem Shop is leading the space by enabling more than 16,000 online businesses throughout the region to operate successfully.

The round was led by Elevar Equity. Elevar was joined by IGNIA and current investors Kaszek Ventures, NXTP Labs and FJ Labs.

“Resource challenged, millions of SMBs across Latin America have difficulty accessing the region’s booming e-commerce market, dampening their prospects for growth. By providing these underserved businesses – the backbone of the region’s economies – with the resources and support to setup, manage, and promote their online businesses, Nuvem Shop is catalyzing entrepreneurship and employment, helping spur economic growth across Latin America,” said Johanna Posada Gil, Co-Founder of Elevar Equity.

Regarding the investment, Santiago Sosa – CEO of Nuvem Shop – said: “We are thrilled about this opportunity. Our main goal is to continue developing technology that will make it easier for our customers to be successful in a highly competitive market. In the coming months, we will continue to launch products and integrations that will allow merchants to expand their sales while keeping daily administration simple and painless. We know that growing a business is very hard, and technology is dramatically changing the way companies used to do business. We are here to simplify that transition.”

Nuvem Shop launched its operations in 2010 in Argentina, where it operates under the name Tienda Nube (https://www.tiendanube.com). In 2012, the company expanded to Brazil, which today accounts for the majority of customer sales. The company counts a total of 100 employees, located mainly in its Buenos Aires and São Paulo offices. A portion of the proceeds from this round will be used to expand company operations into Mexico.

“We see an enormous opportunity to increase the market share of e-commerce in Mexico, and to make it available for companies of all sizes, in turn catalyzing the growth of hundreds of entrepreneurs across the region. Tienda Nube has developed the best solution for businesses interested in selling online, and is backed by a strong and impressive team. We are excited for this new partnership and look forward to supporting their growth in Mexico,” stated Álvaro Rodríguez, co-founder and Managing Partner at IGNIA.

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Rocket, the leading Mexican fintech company connecting credit seekers to optimal financial solutions, receives funding from top venture capital funds

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Mexico City, August 21, 2017- Rocket (www.rocket.la), a fintech company that connects Latin Americans to their best options for credit products, announced the successful closing of a bridge funding round by leading Mexican venture capital firms IGNIA, Angel Ventures, ON Ventures and GC Capital.

Rocket links individuals, 60% of whom have no prior credit history, to an optimal suite of financial products that generate dramatically higher credit approval rates than those of traditional banks. Rocket also helps users increase their credit score by proposing actions to improve the management of their personal financial products. Rocket has developed two mathematical models that profile users according to their needs and probability of approval.

“We see a huge need for more awareness and better understanding of personal financing options in Mexico. Rocket is using its unique sourcing algorithms and credit scoring platform to help individuals find their best credit option, and financial institutions generate more accurate leads. This is only the beginning for Rocket, as this need from credit seekers and banks is prevalent throughout Latin America,” commented Alvaro Rodriguez, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA.

“Rocket has positioned itself as the top choice for banking institutions for online acquisition, we are currently working with 10 top financial institutions in Mexico to improve their online processes and to design better products according to users’ needs. With this additional capital, Rocket will be able to expand its engineering team, accelerate new user growth and open in new geographies,” commented Daniel Rojas, CEO and Co-Founder of Rocket.la.

Camilo Kejner, Managing Partner of Angel Ventures, stated that “Rocket has created a wider funnel with higher quality and more precise leads than that of other companies in this market segment, leading to much larger approval rates. We were always curious as to what type of conversion rates Rocket would have as they escalated from 5,000 to 50,000 referrals a month, and the results have exceeded our expectations. Daniel and his team have managed to create a robust system and solid connections with large financial institutions that now rely on Rocket for quality leads”.

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Apli, Latin America´s first on-demand talent platform, raises USD $1.5 million seed round

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Mexico City, August 16, 2017, – Apli, a talent-as-a-service platform, closed a USD $1.5 million round led by Mexican venture capital fund ALLVP with additional participation from IGNIA, Social Capital and Soldiers Field Angels.

Apli provides an end-to-end recruiting solution driven by machine learning to automatically profile candidates, match workers to opportunities and assign backups to make up for turnover and absenteeism. Vera Makarov, José María Pertusa, Volker Mueller and Yeri Arenas founded the company in August 2016. The service started out in Mexico City and has since grown from a jobs marketplace to a talent-as-a-service platform that provides temporary workers and full-time recruiting to over 400 clients in the hospitality, services, retail and logistics industries. The additional funds from this round will enable Apli to expand to other Latin American cities and to build candidate profiling technology for an increasing number of industries and positions.

“Traditional recruiting is so slow and inefficient that we estimate that one third of global unemployment, equivalent to 70 million people, is caused by friction between job supply and demand,” says cofounder Vera Makarov. With algorithmic matching, Apli fulfills 98% of its client requests and reduces the time to recruit a candidate from 52 days to less than 24 hours. “The key is to provide an end-to-end-solution. As opposed to online jobs sites, which only generate leads, we deliver qualified workers to get the job done on the same day,” notes Vera.

“Conversational interfaces enable us to profile candidates in more depth than with traditional in-person interviews. An average Apli candidate spends 16 minutes answering questions from our chatbot, generating exponentially more data than traditional registration forms,” explains cofounder José María Pertusa.

María Alejandra Venegas, who led the round from ALLVP, adds “artificial intelligence will transform how companies hire and how people manage their careers. We are excited to participate as investors in the technological revolution of the recruiting industry.”

This investment round is unique because it was 100% led by women: Vera Makarov from Apli, María Alejandra Venegas from ALLVP, Christine Kenna from Ignia, Ashley Carroll from Social Capital and Deborah Dana from Soldiers Field Angels. Christine Kenna states, “Apli is proof that there are opportunities to invest in high growth, ambitious tech startups led by women, and Vera is an example for women who aspire to become high-impact entrepreneurs.” Deborah Dana concludes, “In addition to having one of the best founding teams, Apli is solving an important problem for businesses in Mexico. With 1 billion days lost to turnover and absenteeism every year in 2.5 million companies in the services, retail and manufacturing industries, Apli’s market potential is huge.”

PR contact

Diana Pantoja

pr@apli.jobs

(+521) 55 6702 1641

About Apli

Apli is Latin America’s first on-demand jobs platform that provides qualified workers in less than 24 hours. Apli was recognized as the best Mexican startup of 2016 by Seedstars,  Cinépolis and IBM Smartcamp and was the global winner of Harvard Business School’s 2017 new venture competition. For more information, please visit http://www.apli.jobs/ and Apli’s press room.

About ALLVP

ALLVP – Antoni & Lelo de Larrea Venture Partners – founded by Federico Antoni and Fernando Lelo de Larrea in 2012, is one of the most active Series A fund in the venture capital industry in Latin America. Across two portfolios, the fund has invested in twenty-four companies throughout the region such as Cornershop, the fastest growing on-demand grocery platform in Latin America, weex, the mobile virtual network operator where users create their own micro-plans from a selection of talk/text/data bundles, and Alkanza, a pioneering rob-advisor that uses AI to offer portfolio services to clients of financial institutions in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and the US. The firm is a member of the Latin-American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA), the Mexican Private Equity Association (AMEXCAP) and Endeavor Investor Network. For more information, please visit http://www.allvp.vc/ and @all_vp.

 

About IGNIA

IGNIA is a venture capital fund that invests in high growth companies aimed at the emerging middle class in Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds and USD 200 million in capital raised. IGNIA invests in sectors such as health, fintech, education and basic services. For more information please visit www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA_Fund.

About Social Capital

Social Capital is a venture capital firm founded in 2011 that specializes in technology startups, providing seed funding, venture capital and private equity. Social Capital´s mission is to transform society by using technology to solve the world’s hardest problems. For more information, visit http://www.socialcapital.com/ and @socialcapital.

About Soldiers Field Angels

Soldiers Field Angels is an early-stage Venture Capital firm that supports startups with smart capital from Harvard Business School alumni. Founded in 2013, SFA’s mentor network covers utilities, transportation, healthcare, education, consumer goods, IT and financial services. For more information, visit http://www.soldiersfieldangels.com/

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Lentesplus.com, the leading e-commerce platform for contact lenses in Latin America, receives funding from IGNIA, InQlab and Stella Maris Partners to continue its regional expansion

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Mexico City, July 17, 2017 – Lentesplus.com (www.lentesplus.com), a company that offers the most convenient option to buy contact lenses, today announced the completion of its Series B round. This new round of financing was led by IGNIA and includes follow-ons from existing investors Stella Maris Partners and InQlab, as well as from angel investors.

In a market where customers are traditionally required to physically go to an optical shop, paying prices as much as three times higher than in the US and facing limited inventory and availability, the Lentesplus.com platform allows customers to purchase contact lenses online simply, efficiently and more economically.

Headquartered in Bogotá, the company is present in Mexico, Colombia and Chile, and plans to continue growing in these markets. The company’s streamlined process allows for short delivery times (same day delivery in major cities) and seamless customer service, while offering competitive prices and a complete product offering. In a country like Mexico, where 43% of the population suffers from some form of visual problem and requires eye care services, Lentesplus.com is bringing an innovative and highly convenient alternative to the traditional market.

“Lentesplus.com is uniquely positioned to lead the contact lenses market in Latin America. Its innovative and strong value proposition to the customer will allow the company to continue its rapid expansion into Mexico. We are excited to partner with its highly qualified team and look forward to supporting their growth”, said Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at IGNIA.

“We are very excited to participate in this new round of Lentesplus.com, and are honored to have IGNIA join the original investors’ group. This investment reinforces our positive view on the project and on the strong management team led by Diego and Jaime. We have a lot of confidence on the long term value of Lentesplus.com and truly believe the company has the knowledge and expertise to consolidate its position as the leading player in the visual health sector in Latam”, said Armando Badillo, Managing Partner at Stella Maris Partners.

“We are very excited and grateful to bring IGNIA on board and help us boost our growth in Mexico, Colombia and Chile, as well as reinforce our international expansion”, said Jaime Oriol, Co-Founder of Lentesplus.com.

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Afluenta incorporates the Mexican investment fund IGNIA to its prestigious list of shareholders

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IGNIA´s investment in Afluenta will

allow the company to continue its consolidation in the local and regional market and is a result of the positive impact the company has had on the finances of individuals in the popular sector.

 

Mexico City, July 13th, 2017. Afluenta (www.afluenta.com), the leading Latin America marketplace lending network, announced that the Mexican venture capital fund IGNIA will be joining its shareholder group that includes the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s institution for the private sector, and Elevar Equity, an American social impact investment fund. IGNIA is a venture capital fund specializing in investments in companies with high growth potential, whose services meet the needs of the emerging middle class.

 

This investment seeks to promote the company´s growth. Afluenta boosted its expansion thanks to the investment support of IFC and Elevar Equity, and is the first and only maketplace network in Latin America with offices in Argentina, Peru and Mexico. Now, with IGNIA joining the company, growth is expected not only in Mexico but in the rest of Latin America.

 

In Mexico, where local credit to the private sector is below 35% of GDP, compared to 68% in Brazil, Afluenta aims to revolutionize the market with its human approach to credit and investment. “We see wonderful growth opportunity for Afluenta in Mexico. The availability of funding sources and investment options need to be increased, and we believe that Afluenta offers the best solution with its collaborative lending platform. We are excited to partner with its extremely talented and strong team,” said Álvaro Rodríguez, co-founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA.

 

Afluenta connects borrowers with investors who can be individuals or companies, excluding intermediaries such as the traditional financial institutions. Its technology allows investors to receive competitive returns from their contributions in a simple, fast and efficient manner, while borrowers obtain faster loans, with no bureaucracy, and at a lower interest rate than in a bank.

 

“We have always been concerned about financial inclusion. This is the reason why we started Afluenta. The support we now receive from IGNIA, an investment fund aimed at investing in companies focused on the growing Mexican middle class, means that we are actually going in the right direction, to make money flow again among people,” stated Alejandro Cosentino, CEO and founder of Afluenta.

 

The Afluenta community in Latin America includes more than 650,000 people and has provided loans for about USD 25,000,000 through more than 1,500,000 transactions, which makes it the largest medium-term collaborative lending platform for individuals in the region.

 

 

About Afluenta

Afluenta (www.afluenta.com) is a Latin American financial technology company that specializes in crowdfunding, with the mission to promote a simple, safe and transparent financial culture. It develops innovative financial products that help people manage their finances simply and effectively. Afluenta seeks to become a strong investment alternative for investors and the best financing source for solvent borrowers. It is backed by private investors and was created by NXTP Labs, which is part of Global Accelerator Network (GAN).

 

About IGNIA

IGNIA (http://www.ignia.mx) is a venture capital fund that invests in high growth companies aimed at the emerging middle class in Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with assets which amount to USD 200 million and are managed by said company. IGNIA invests in sectors such as health, FinTech, financial services, education and basic services.

 

About IFC

IFC (http://www.ifc.org), a member of the World Bank Group, is the leading international development institution dedicated exclusively to the private sector in emerging markets. In collaboration with more than 2,000 companies worldwide, IFC uses its capital, expertise and influence to create opportunities where they are needed the most. In fiscal year 2015, long-term investments of IFC in developing countries increased to nearly USD 18,000 million and allowed the private sector to play a key role in global efforts to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.

 

About Elevar Equity

Elevar Equity (www.elevarequity.com) is an avant-garde venture capital fund focused on investing in companies with high growth potential and aimed at providing services to traditionally underserved communities. Elevar has invested in companies in Asia and Latin America that have served more than 18 million customers and have transacted more than USD 7 billion in capital and debt for the benefit of said communities. With offices in India, Colombia and the United States, Elevar participates in initial stages as the founding partner or the first institutional capital of companies with strong presence in sectors such as financial services, FinTech, education, health and housing.

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IGNIA invests in KarmaPulse, the innovative Mexico-based social analytics company

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— PRESS RELEASE —

IGNIA invests in KarmaPulse, the innovative Mexico-based social analytics company

Mexico City, June 28, 2017 – The Mexican venture capital firm IGNIA today announced their investment in KarmaPulse (www.karmapulse.com), a company dedicated to mining, monitoring, interpretation and visualization of data in social networks. KarmaPulse democratizes social analytics and social listening so anyone can make better decisions for their company or organization. The company analyzes conversations and messages of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, interprets all the data generated by users and extracts relevant information.

Today, there are more than 65 million social media users in Mexico, with increasing peer-to-peer and customer-to-company interactions. Yet, before KarmaPulse there was no easy, reliable and affordable way to get real time analysis of data from Spanish-speaking social media users. The company is focused on serving any customer size at a reasonable price. “IGNIA is excited to partner with a company that puts cutting edge data analytics technology available to companies of all sizes to Spanish speaking markets,” states Alvaro Rodiguez Arregui, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at IGNIA.

“We believe in connecting people through technology with smart and affordable products. Our goal is to place social data’s power and intelligence in anyone’s hands for smarter and real time decision making. We are very excited to work with IGNIA hand in hand to make this happen!” commented Ximena Iñigo, Founder and CEO of Karmapulse.

IGNIA is a venture capital firm that invests in high growth enterprises targeting the emerging middle class of Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with US$200 million assets under management. IGNIA invests in sectors such as healthcare, fintech, financial services, education and basic services. For more information please visit: http://www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA_Fund

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IGNIA completes another fintech investment in the startup AirTM, an internet money platform that allows anyone to have a cloud-based USD-denominated account

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Mexico City, January 31st 2017 –  The Mexican venture capital firm IGNIA has announced today its investment in the Mexico- based startup AirTM, a company that has created an easy, secure and low cost way of moving money in local currency to an AirTM cloud-based USD account (and vice versa). The company has a network of cashiers that connect more than 200 national banking systems and multiple e-money networks such as Paypal, Amazon, Neteller and Skrill. AirTM has more the 50,000 clients in more than 59 countries around the world.

“We believe in the enormous opportunity that exists in being able to offer financial services to consumers and business at a global level, and to do so through innovative solutions developed by Mexican entrepreneurs using bitcoin/blockchain technologies”, commented Alvaro Rodriguez, Co-Founder and Managing Partner in IGNIA.

“We are very excited to work with IGNIA, we believe their experience and knowledge of the financial services sector will help AirTM grow in Mexico and globally”, commented Ruben Galindo, Co-Founder of AirTM.

IGNIA is a venture capital firm that invests in high growth enterprises targeting the emerging middle class of Mexico. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with US$200 million assets under management. IGNIA invests in sectors such as healthcare, fintech, financial services, education and basic services. For more information please visit: http://www.ignia.mx and @IGNIA_Fund  

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Going Global: Building a Worldwide Digital Cash Network; Includes Direct Bitcoin Support

 

Today, at the North American Bitcoin Conference,  I announced the next phase of Abra’s global expansion: Next month, we’ll be enabling Abra worldwide, activating a global network of Tellers who can transact in over 50 currencies, including directly in Bitcoin. This means that anyone with a smartphone in any country can send or receive funds in most major currencies and can cash in or out of their Abra wallet, even without a bank account.

Bitcoin is key to these efforts. While Bitcoin has always been a large part of what we do, it’s been hidden in the background up until now. Last year we launched Abra in the Philippines and the US, and validated that we could release a digital currency product using Bitcoin that didn’t confuse the average consumer. Yes, my 70+ year old mother can use Abra with no help from me. Cool.

Now we’re adding direct Bitcoin support (for depositing and withdrawing) in the Abra App while maintaining the super-user-friendly experience from stage one. Once we launch, any Abra user can use Bitcoin via any third party Bitcoin Wallet to add and remove funds from their Abra App regardless of which currency they’re holding in their Abra Wallet.  (As a reminder Abra is a non-custodial digital currency wallet.  Abra has no access to the user’s private key, even in the instance where the consumer chooses to hold US Dollars.)

We’ll also be launching a network of Abra Tellers – what some people call our Human ATMs – to enable people around the world to use Abra.

So at global launch, we’ll support the following scenarios:

  • Bitcoin wallet: Buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin with Abra in addition to any of 50 fiat currencies
  • Bitcoin to fiat: Send Bitcoin to anyone worldwide, and the recipient can receive in any of our supported currencies, which they can then cash out via a Teller. The recipient doesn’t even have to know what Bitcoin is, as we’ll take care of the currency conversion.
  • Fiat to Bitcoin: Cash in via a Teller in any of our supported currencies (again, without needing to know about Bitcoin), send to anyone worldwide, and the recipient can receive and/or cash out in Bitcoin
  • Fiat to fiat: any user can send money in any of our 50+ supported currencies to any other user, and both parties can cash in and out via their local Teller.
  • Become a Teller using Bitcoin:  This is huge!  If you’re an existing Bitcoin trader you can now use that Bitcoin to become an Abra Teller and process deposits/withdrawals for people who don’t know what Bitcoin is (Build your own Travelex for digital currency!)

Abra Teller transactionOne of the things I’m most excited about is our support for the global Bitcoin trading community.  We estimate that $30-$40 million per week is now traded in person in “fiat vs Bitcoin” in over 75 countries. With our support for Bitcoin Traders as Abra Tellers, Bitcoin Traders can now hold Bitcoin in their Abra App but process deposits and withdrawals in any world currency that the Abra App supports. A consumer holding US Dollars meets a Teller, and processes a withdrawal to receive Argentinian Pesos. Neither party even knows that a dual currency trade transaction took place!  Wow.

This is a huge step forward in realizing our vision of anyone being able to send money easily to anyone else in the world, instantly, privately, and securely. We’ll be rolling our Teller program out globally, starting next month. Tellers can make money while helping their community send and receive money.

If you’re interested in becoming an Abra Teller, we encourage you to apply right away! Please make sure you have the latest app version downloaded, and submit your details right from within the app.  Our onboarding team will contact you as we review applications.

We’re excited for this next stage in our development, and look forward to getting your feedback as we progress!