Financial technology startups have been raising lots of capital recently. Add Bitcoin mining manufacturer BitFury to the club of startups that have scored a +$20 million funding round.
The company, which creates powerful machines, processors, and chips to mine for Bitcoin, closed a massive round of financing earlier today, led by Binary Financial, Crypto Currency Partners, Georgian Co-Investment Fund (GCF), Queensbridge Venture Partners and ZAD Investment Company. Angel investors Jonathan Teo and Bill Tai also joined the group, providing additional funding. Coindesk notes that Teo is a former Google employee and Snapchat investor, while Tai is a Glyde and Scribd board member.
In a press release, BitFury writes that it will use the funding for international expansion and to continue developing bespoke semiconductors, or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) or servers. Interestingly, the release mentions that BitFury will be pursuing “opportunities in adjacent business areas,” as well.
Valery Vavilov, BitFury CEO, has high aspirations for his company, which has headquarters in San Francisco and Amsterdam. He isn’t shy about expressing them either, writing in the press release:
“The success of this funding round validates our strategy and brings us closer to our aspiration of becoming the world’s first publicly listed Bitcoin company. This investment will further accelerate our growth, and we are excited to strengthen our industry leadership with next-generation hardware and services.”
With this investment round, BitFury appears to solidify itself as the world’s leading manufacturer of virtual currency mining hardware. Not only that, but BitFury claims to operate world’s largest mining operations, with data centers and facilities in Finland, Iceland, and the Republic of Georgia. Not only does it sell the hardware to consumers, it also wholesales to professional mining operations around the world.
For all the Mt.Gox tumult, BitFury is just one in a series of high-profile investments made in the virtual currency industry in the past few months. Earlier this month, BitPay raised a record breaking $30 million in Series A funding, the largest investment in a bitcoin-related company ever. Last December, the popular digital wallet Coinbase raised $25 million in Series B funding. Another large virtual currency round was raised back in March 2013, when Xapo, an “ultra-secure” Bitcoin storage company, received a $20 million investment. You might such much “currency” is flowing into virtual currency.