Kleiner Perkins, the well-known venture firm has expanded its portfolio by making their first investment in the bitcoin sector. Kleiner Perkins’ recent investment in Align Commerce makes the venture capital firm’s entry into the cryptocurrency industry.
According to a recent announcement by Align Commerce, the company has closed its Series A fundraising round for $12.5 million from investors led by Kleiner Perkins. Align Commerce is a relatively young payment system that was launched earlier this year. The company makes use of its Multi-Rail technology to facilitate payments across 60 countries in the world. The Multi-Rail technology is an amalgamation of three different technologies. The three different technologies are international banking network, bitcoin blockchain network and a global treasure strategy. The Multi-Rail technology used by Align Commerce enables users to directly transfer money to the beneficiary’s bank account almost instantly without using the receiving banks network.
Kleiner Perkins’ involvement with Align Commerce comes after almost two years since the venture firm decided to look for the right kind of businesses emerging out of the bitcoin and blockchain sector. Align Commerce, like many other bitcoin based remittance and payment processing platforms enables both individuals and small businesses to send funds instantly and more economically through its Multi-Rail technology. Unlike the traditional money transfer systems, Align Commerce utilizes email based payment system for fund transfer which eliminates the necessity to remember the bank details, SWIFT Code etc. Align also works together with other third party payment processors and local banking partners.
Some of the investors in Align Commerce includes Kleiner Perkins, Silicon Valley Bank, Recruit Strategic Partners, R3CEV, Ledra Capital, Digital Currency Group, Pivot Investment Partners, NYCA and Panthera. In addition to closure of Series A fundraising, Align Commerce will also be having Randy Komisar, the general partner of Kleiner Perkins will soon be joining the board of Align Commerce.