Bottlepay, a payments disruptor that facilitates real-time global payments, has announced it has secured £11m ($15m) in a seed funding round.
Bottlepay’s new payment system is paving the way for a new digital economy and eradicating the barriers to effective instant payments. It aims to give everyone access to an open payment network that allows people to send, spend and receive money anywhere in the world, in real-time.
Bottlepay allows people to be part of a growing cashless society in a way that suits them. It facilitates instant payments, including micropayments, in conventional currencies and Bitcoin, meaning users can pay, donate and tip with as little as a penny.
Funding round participants include a range of global investors including British fund manager Alan Howard, present and former Goldman Sachs partners, venture capital firm FinTech Collective, and financial services firm NYDIG and tech entrepreneur Phil Doye.
Bottlepay will use the funding to expand its team, improve functionality and increase the geographical reach of the service over the coming year.
Mark Webster, Chief Executive Officer of Bottlepay, said: “Raising £11 million and reaching a post-money valuation of £51 million is a testament to the scale of Bottlepay’s ambition, and an illustration of the effort and resources invested to build and design a revolutionary payments infrastructure of this magnitude.
“The payments ecosystem is undergoing monumental changes as we move towards a cashless society. Today’s consumer wants to be able to transact freely and easily, without the restrictions of a traditional bank. We believe that with this cash injection, we can build a leading company in this rapidly growing space which will allow people to send, spend and receive payments in a way that works best for them.”
The firm’s open payment network aims to transform the digital economy by making digital micropayments and cross border transactions viable by vastly reducing the excessive fees usually encountered with the incumbent payment rails. Using Bottlepay’s system, any purchase that is immediately fulfilled – from coffees to digital content – can be made from anywhere in the world with instant payments using conventional currencies or Bitcoin.
Bottlepay’s new app also enables seamless social payments with a single tweet, message or social media post on platforms such as Twitter, Reddit and Discord.
Sean Lippel, Principal and Head of Digital Assets at FinTech Collective, said: “While nearly 65 million people own Bitcoin globally, only a small fraction of that number actually transact daily, meaning we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface on the broader payment use cases for Bitcoin as an open-source money network. We believe Bottlepay’s elegant and intuitive consumer interface, built strategically on top of the power of the Lightning Network, will unlock social, streaming, and micropayments for digital assets. We were attracted to the team’s unique combination of technical and design talent, bound together with a laser-focus on privacy and regulatory compliance”
